Television viewing figures have continued to fall for the third quarter in a row, with average daily hours of viewing across all TV down to 3.45 hours, compared to 3.50 hours compared to the same quarter in 2004, according to the latest IPA Trends in TV report.
The IPA showed that the second quarter of 2005 saw BBC1’s share of viewers fall to 23.8% compared to 24.8% this time last year, with BBC2 following suit, dropping to 9.6% from 9.7%.
ITV continued the downwards trend, declining to 20.9% from 22.5%, while Channel 4 sunk to 9.7% in Q2 from 10.1% and Five attracted a 6.7% viewing share, compared to 6.9% a year ago.
Multi-channel television faired better during April, May and June 2005, continuing to gain share and now commanding a 29.3% share of all TV viewing, up from 26% this time in 2004.
The IPA attributes the non-terrestrial gain in share to the expense of ITV, which recorded its lowest ever share of television viewing during the quarter.
Commenting on the findings, Lynne Robinson, research director at the IPA said: “These viewing levels are disappointing for television overall and ITV in particular.”
ITV’s recent poor performance came under debate at the recent Edinburgh Television Festival with sliding audiences and a string of unsuccessful celebrity-based reality shows raised by a panel of industry experts (see ITV Under Fire At Edinburgh TV Festival).
However, despite declining ratings, Anthony Fry, head of UK investment bank, Lehman Brothers said: “If you want to advertise to a mass audience, there is no other place you can than ITV.”
Stuart Prebble, managing director of Liberty Bell seconded this opinion, claiming the channel still offered advertisers something that other channels can not, and that the nature of ITV’s output keeps “premium ad rate.”
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