TV Viewing Round Up – April 2001
Programmes EastEnders managed to gain the top rated programme spot again in April, as the Phil Mitchell shooting storyline garnered an audience of 20m on Thursday 5 April. Coronation Street fought back during the rest of the month, managing to top the weekly chart each week from then on, but with audiences barely reaching the 15m mark. Expect another fight back from EastEnders during this month as Sharon Watts returns to the Square.
Looking ahead to May, ITV claimed victory over Sky Sports 2 with its FA Cup coverage. Its 6.8m overnight average represented a 500,000 increase on last year, while Sky’s dedicated sports channel attracted 29,000 less than last year. It could be that ITV will need something to cheer them up as the darlings of Saturday morning TV, Ant and Dec are so far looking wobbly in their attempts to work the same magic on ITV’s Saturday evening line up.
As the summer approaches it could be that the currently untouchable soaps take a back seat as the battle of the reality shows kicks off. US hit Survivor began last night on ITV, while the return of Big Brother on Channel 4 from next week will keep voyeurs spoiled for choice over the coming months.
Viewing The month was a bad one for the terrestrial channels in general, with year on year falls in hours and minutes viewing recorded by all channels except BBC1, which managed a modest 0.7% increase compared to the 2000 figure. Sister channel BBC2 made a larger move in the opposite direction, falling 9.1% year on year.
The non-terrestrial, or “other” channels continue to build strength, with a 16.5% increase compared to April 2000.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Apr-2001 | 7:01 | 2:48 | 7:26 | 2:20 | 1:27 | 5:04 |
| Apr-2000 | 6:58 | 3:05 | 7:41 | 2:25 | 1:29 | 4:21 |
| % Change | 0.7 | -9.1 | -3.3 | -3.0 | -2.2 | 16.5 |
The performance in hours and minutes of the terrestrial channels was reflected in the viewing shares, with BBC1 managing a 0.1 percentage point increase to 26.5%, while both BBC2 and ITV dropped 1.1 percentage points each. Other channels managed a 2.6 percentage point increase year on year.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Apr-2001 | 26.6 | 10.6 | 28.1 | 10.1 | 5.5 | 19.1 |
| Apr-2000 | 26.5 | 11.7 | 29.2 | 10.4 | 5.6 | 16.5 |
| % Point Change | 0.1 | -1.1 | -1.1 | -0.3 | -0.1 | 2.6 |
Healthy increases in share were seen in all ITV franchise areas for non-terrestrial channels. Of particular note was a 5.7 percentage point change for the South West and a 5.6 percentage point change for Ulster.
These areas proved more problematic for the terrestrial channels, with both ITV and Channel 4 seeing their heavier falls in the Ulster region- 3 percentage points for ITV and 2 for Channel 4. ITV also saw a 3 point fall in the South and South East region.
The commercial terrestrials nevertheless still did better than BBC2, which saw falls across all areas, especially South West, down 3.4, and Border, down 2.9 percentage points year on year.
| Franchise Area | BBC1 | YoY Point Ch | BBC2 | YoY Point Ch | ITV | YoY Point Ch | C4/S4C | YoY Point Ch | Channel 5 | YoY Point Ch | Others | YoY Point Ch |
| London (Wkdy & Wknd) | 27.1 | 0.3 | 10.7 | -1.2 | 25.6 | -0.3 | 10.1 | -0.3 | 6.3 | -0.2 | 20.1 | 1.7 |
| Midlands (Central) | 25.5 | 0.5 | 10.3 | -1.9 | 28.0 | -0.8 | 9.8 | 0.6 | 7.0 | -0.6 | 19.3 | 2.0 |
| North West (Granada) | 25.6 | 0.6 | 10.1 | -1.2 | 28.8 | -0.4 | 9.0 | -0.9 | 5.3 | -0.5 | 21.3 | 2.7 |
| Yorkshire | 25.9 | -0.2 | 10.4 | -1.5 | 30.2 | -0.9 | 10.6 | -0.4 | 6.0 | -0.4 | 16.9 | 3.5 |
| Central/North Scotland | 24.1 | 0.9 | 10.5 | -0.1 | 27.2 | -0.8 | 11.0 | -0.5 | 6.9 | 0.0 | 20.3 | 0.4 |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 29.0 | -0.3 | 11.0 | -1.2 | 26.5 | -1.1 | 8.4 | -1.0 | 3.9 | 0.2 | 21.1 | 3.2 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 28.4 | 0.4 | 11.3 | -2.0 | 28.1 | -3.0 | 11.2 | -0.2 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 19.4 | 4.7 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 25.4 | 0.2 | 10.0 | -1.2 | 27.7 | -1.7 | 9.8 | 0.2 | 6.6 | 0.8 | 20.7 | 1.9 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 25.4 | -1.2 | 10.2 | -1.5 | 28.9 | -0.7 | 9.8 | -0.2 | 3.8 | 0.2 | 21.9 | 3.4 |
| South West (West Country) | 31.7 | -0.1 | 13.2 | -3.4 | 28.8 | -1.0 | 11.2 | -0.9 | 2.7 | -0.4 | 12.4 | 5.7 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 23.3 | 2.0 | 8.5 | -1.9 | 29.8 | -3.0 | 8.8 | -2.0 | 3.2 | -0.7 | 26.5 | 5.6 |
| Border | 22.9 | -3.1 | 9.7 | -2.9 | 34.8 | 1.1 | 11.1 | 0.1 | 3.1 | 0.1 | 18.4 | 4.7 |
Ratings BBC1 had a reasonably good month, ratings-wise, with the best increases seen in the Housewives and ABC1 Adults categories, both up 1.3 percentage points. Channel 5 saw drops or no movement in all categories, while ITV’s mixed bag included a 0.7 percentage point increase in the Women category.
| Station | Day | Individuals | YoY Ch | Adults | YoY Ch | Men | YoY Ch | Women | YoY Ch | Hwives | YoY Ch | Hswvs/Ch | YoY Ch | ABC1 Adults | YoY Ch |
| BBC1 | Mon-Sun | 11.1 | 0.6 | 12.2 | 0.6 | 11.2 | 0.9 | 13.1 | 0.3 | 13.8 | 0.5 | 13.0 | 1.3 | 12.1 | 1.3 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 3.6 | -0.9 | 4.1 | -1.0 | 4.4 | -1.2 | 3.7 | -1.8 | 4.4 | -0.3 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 4.4 | 0.0 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 14.0 | -0.1 | 15.6 | 0.1 | 13.2 | -0.5 | 17.8 | 0.7 | 18.3 | 0.5 | 15.2 | -0.5 | 12.9 | -0.5 |
| Channel 4 | Mon-Sun | 3.9 | 0.2 | 4.3 | 0.2 | 4.0 | 0.2 | 4.6 | 0.3 | 4.9 | 0.3 | 4.9 | 0.5 | 4.6 | 0.5 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.6 | -0.3 | 2.9 | -0.3 | 3.2 | 0.0 | 2.6 | -0.5 | 3.1 | -0.5 | 2.6 | -0.2 | 2.6 | -0.2 |
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