TV Round-Up – October 1998

Agency estimates for October 1998 put total terrestrial TV ad revenue (including GMTV’s) at £277.28 million. Year on year ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all show increases in their ad revenue and GMTV continues to lose advertising income.

ITV’s Adults impacts dropped year on year for October, by 5.4% to 26,387; all categories bar Housewives/Children continue to fall. ABC1 Adults were down by 5.0% to 9,471 but this is still almost triple the impacts gained on Channel 4 in this category. C4 impacts were up for all audiences in October.

Costs on ITV continue to rise for all audience categories. The main rationale behind the removal of the News At Ten is to open up more opportunity for advertisers to reach peak audiences which in turn, it is hoped, will halt or reduce airtime inflation. Channel 4’s costs show a similar picture with all audiences showing yearly increases; Channel 5’s gain in revenue during October means that CPTs are up for all categories year on year for the first time so far.

ITV continues to lead the battle of viewing share with BBC1. Cable and satellite channels continue to cut in to the viewing of the terrestrials, up by 0.9% points year on year.

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