TV Viewing Round Up – December 1999
Programmes December is usually a month of two halves for viewers and advertisers alike. At the start there is the customary strong line-up of programmes on ITV, then during Christmas week the channel holds back its big guns for the New Year and allows the BBC to outperform it. This is based on the premise that the public has little money left to spend by this stage in the month, so it seems wasteful to show good programmes if people aren’t going to buy the products advertised around them.
Top rated programmes at the beginning of the month included: Parkinson Meets McCartney, with 8.33 million viewers; Royal Variety Performance 1999, watched by 10.6 million people; An Audience with Diana Ross, which had an audience of 8.44 million; the Record of The Year Results, had 9.12 million viewers, while Manchester United’s Champion’s League match against Valencia helped ITV to pull in 9.37 million viewers and BBC1’s Sports Personality of The Century was watched by 8.48 million people.
Christmas week saw BBC1 come out with all guns blazing with five episodes of its number one soap opera Eastenders, the most successful of which was Tuesday’s edition, which had an audience of 13.8 million. Other programmes that did well for BBC1 include: blockbuster film Mission Impossible, with 12.8 million viewers; the first of the seasonal episodes of Vicar of Dibley had 14.17 million viewers; Before They Were Famous achieved an audience of 12.25 million and the Christmas special of The Royle Family, was watched by 10.44 million people.
The last week of the century saw BBC1 keep its lead over its main rival, due in part to its coverage of the millennium countdown celebrations and a double helping of Eastenders. BBC1 managed to attract over 10 million viewers for the last two programmes of the year, One Hour To Go and Into The Millennium watched by 10.85 and 10.33 million respectively (some people need to get out more), while the second edition of Eastenders achieved an audience of 13.44 million.
Viewing Following on from last month’s hammering of the BBC, it is now ITV’s turn to suffer a fall in viewing figures. BBC1 improved on its December total from the previous year, up 0.3%. ITV was the only station to record year on year decreases in viewing total, falling by 1.9%.
The best year-on-year performances came from Channel 5 and Others (non-terrestrial stations), up 15.7% and 15.4% respectively on December 1998.
Hours & Minutes
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Dec-99 | 8:47 | 3:01 | 8:31 | 2:53 | 1:28 | 4:04 |
| Dec-98 | 8:45 | 3:01 | 8:41 | 2:44 | 1:16 | 3:34 |
| % Change | 0.3 | 0.0 | -1.9 | 5.4 | 15.7 | 15.4 |
Despite being the leader in terms of hours and minutes viewed, the BBC along with ITV recorded drops in year-on-year share of viewing for December. BBC1 and BBC2 fell by 0.7 and 0.3 percentage points, while ITV fell by 1.1 points.
The growth in digital television has helped channels in the Others category to recorded the greatest increases in year-on-year viewing share. Viewing of non-terrestrial stations increased by 1.6 percentage points, with Channel 5 in second place, rising 0.6 points on December 1998.
Viewing Share
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Dec-99 | 30.5 | 10.5 | 29.8 | 10.1 | 5.1 | 14.3 |
| Dec-98 | 31.2 | 10.8 | 30.9 | 9.8 | 4.5 | 12.7 |
| % Point Change | -0.7 | -0.3 | -1.1 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 1.6 |
Although December is a strong month for BBC1, the channel still recorded drops in most regions for viewing share by franchise area, with only four areas showing year-on-year percentage point increases. The best performing franchise area for BBC1 was the Ulster region, up 1.1 percentage points on December 1998.
As bad as BBC1’s figures are, they are not as bad as ITV’s which saw franchise viewing share fall in all regions. The worst fall came in the Ulster region, down 3 percentage points compared to the previous December’s figures.
Share by Franchise Area
| 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) | 31.4 | -0.4 | 10.7 | -0.6 | 25.6 | -2.1 | 9.8 | -0.1 | 5.9 | 0.7 | 16.6 | 2.4 |
| Midlands (Central) | 29.4 | -0.7 | 10.0 | -0.1 | 29.9 | -0.1 | 9.1 | 0.4 | 6.6 | 0.4 | 14.9 | 0.0 |
| North West (Granada) | 29.2 | 0.2 | 9.5 | -0.6 | 31.4 | -1.4 | 9.2 | -0.5 | 5.0 | 0.7 | 15.6 | 1.4 |
| Yorkshire | 30.1 | 0.1 | 10.1 | 0.2 | 33.0 | -0.7 | 9.8 | 0.1 | 6.1 | 0.9 | 10.8 | -0.6 |
| Central/North Scotland | 27.2 | n/a | 10.2 | n/a | 28.0 | n/a | 11.0 | n/a | 6.5 | n/a | 17.1 | n/a |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 33.1 | -0.6 | 10.8 | 0.1 | 30.1 | -0.4 | 9.8 | 0.9 | 3.8 | 0.0 | 12.4 | 0.0 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 33.1 | -0.8 | 12.0 | -0.7 | 30.4 | -1.0 | 10.7 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 12.9 | 1.9 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 28.9 | -0.8 | 10.1 | 0.5 | 30.2 | -1.5 | 9.4 | -0.3 | 5.5 | 0.1 | 15.8 | 1.9 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 32.6 | -0.8 | 10.3 | -0.2 | 29.5 | -1.3 | 9.3 | -0.1 | 2.8 | 0.9 | 15.4 | 1.4 |
| South West (West Country) | 36.1 | -0.1 | 11.9 | -0.4 | 31.1 | -0.6 | 12.1 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 0.2 | 6.4 | -0.4 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 25.7 | 1.1 | 8.9 | 0.5 | 32.3 | -3.0 | 9.4 | 0.0 | 3.2 | -0.8 | 20.5 | 2.1 |
| Border | 30.1 | 0.1 | 10.4 | 0.5 | 34.5 | -2.4 | 10.8 | -0.2 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 11.6 | 1.2 |
Ratings BBC1 had a good month in the ratings, with the only the Housewives with Children audience showing a year-on-year decline. BBC1’s best figures came from the Housewives audience, up 3.4 points year-on-year.
ITV had a mixed month in terms of ratings. While only two audiences had lower ratings than BBC1, compared to the channel’s previous year figures all but one audience dropped in ratings. ITV’s Housewives with Children audience recorded the biggest drop, down 1.9 points year on year.
Network Ratings – 8pm to 11pm
| Station | Day | Adults | YoY Ch | Men | YoY Ch | Women | YoY Ch | Hwives | YoY Ch | Hswvs/Ch | YoY Ch | ABC1 Adults | YoY Ch |
| BBC1 | Mon-Sun | 15.2 | 0.1 | 13.7 | 0.0 | 16.5 | 2.8 | 17.1 | 3.4 | 15.9 | -0.4 | 15.7 | 0.4 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 4.3 | -0.1 | 4.4 | -0.1 | 4.1 | -0.3 | 4.7 | -0.2 | 3.3 | -0.6 | 4.9 | -0.1 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 15.3 | -0.3 | 13.5 | -0.6 | 17.0 | -0.1 | 17.6 | -0.3 | 16.0 | -1.9 | 13.3 | 0 |
| C4 | Mon-Sun | 4.2 | 0.4 | 4.1 | 0.5 | 4.3 | 0.4 | 4.6 | 0.4 | 4.5 | 0.4 | 4.3 | 0.6 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.4 | 0.1 | 2.6 | 0.1 | 2.3 | 0.2 | 2.6 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 0 |
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