TV Viewing Round Up – January 2000
Programmes Who says there isn’t decent light entertainment on television anymore? BBC1’s coverage of Man United hilarious participation in FIFA World Club Championships certainly seemed to disprove that. United’s drawn first match was watched by an audience of 10.17 million, while their 3-1 defeat two days later attracted 9.2 million people.
Channel 4’s decision to give Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Beckham her own show, proved to be a great success for the station. Victoria’s Secrets attracted 4.6 million viewers, helped no doubt by the massive hype generated by her husband’s underwear habits.
The law of diminishing returns is affecting ITV’s former golden child – Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. The seven day run during the middle of the month saw the programme attract an average viewing figure of 12.81 million; this compares to an average of 13.91 million for last year’s January run.
Other successes in January include the last edition of OK! TV, watched by 8.87 million people; Channel 4’s premiere of Striptease, with 4 million viewers and World’s Strongest Man, which had an audience of 9.57 million.
Viewing The first month of the new millennium shows encouraging figures for most stations’ average hours and minutes viewed. Channel 5 continues to show the greatest year on year increases of any station (up 17.1% compared to January 1999), closely followed by Others (non-terrestrial stations) which increased by 16.4% year on year.
The only channel to record a year on year decrease in its average hours and minutes total was BBC2, dipping slightly by 0.6% on its January 1999 figure.
Hours & Minutes
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Jan-2000 | 8:17 | 3:00 | 9:17 | 3:01 | 1:39 | 4:09 |
| Jan-1999 | 8:07 | 3:01 | 9:10 | 2:48 | 1:16 | 3:24 |
| % Change | 2.1 | -0.6 | 6.0 | 7.7 | 17.1 | 16.4 |
Share of viewing for non-terrestrial stations (Others) recorded the biggest increase in year on year totals, up 1.81% points on last year. ITV posted the biggest drop in year on year viewing share, falling 2.69% points on its 1999 figure.
Viewing Share
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Jan-2000 | 28.99 | 10.52 | 30.18 | 10.55 | 5.23 | 14.53 |
| Jan-1999 | 29.02 | 10.75 | 32.87 | 10.09 | 4.55 | 12.72 |
| % Point Change | -0.03 | -0.23 | -2.69 | 0.46 | 0.68 | 1.81 |
The first proper year on year analysis of viewing share by franchise area in Central/North Scotland provides mixed fortunes for the various stations. The continued growth of multichannel television means that year on year viewing rose by 3.3% points for non-terrestrial channels, while market leader ITV suffered a 3.1% points decrease.
January was a very good month for non-terrestrial channels and Channel 5, which all saw franchise viewing share rise in all but one area. The Others best region was Border (improving by 4.0% points), while Yorkshire performed best for Channel 5 (up 1.7% points).
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) | 29.0 | -0.5 | 10.9 | -0.8 | 26.0 | -3.1 | 10.7 | 1.2 | 6.1 | 1.2 | 17.3 | 2.1 |
| Midlands (Central) | 27.4 | 0.0 | 10.2 | -0.5 | 29.2 | -3.0 | 9.9 | 0.5 | 7.1 | 0.6 | 16.2 | 2.3 |
| North West (Granada) | 28.0 | 1.1 | 9.7 | -0.4 | 31.0 | -3.2 | 10.0 | -0.1 | 5.5 | 1.4 | 15.8 | 1.2 |
| Yorkshire | 28.3 | 0.6 | 10.4 | -0.3 | 32.5 | -2.9 | 10.6 | 0.0 | 6.6 | 1.7 | 11.6 | 0.8 |
| Central/North Scotland | 25.6 | -1.0 | 9.6 | 0.2 | 28.6 | -3.1 | 11.2 | 0.0 | 6.8 | 0.6 | 18.2 | 3.3 |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 31.3 | 0.0 | 11.2 | 0.1 | 30.9 | -1.4 | 10.1 | 0.9 | 3.6 | -0.2 | 12.8 | 0.4 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 30.1 | -0.1 | 11.9 | -0.7 | 32.5 | -1.0 | 11.9 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 12.4 | 0.9 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 27.2 | -0.3 | 9.6 | -0.9 | 31.0 | -1.9 | 9.9 | -0.4 | 6.1 | 0.8 | 16.2 | 2.7 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 29.6 | -1.3 | 11.6 | 0.6 | 29.7 | -3.4 | 10.4 | 0.5 | 3.2 | 1.3 | 15.5 | 2.4 |
| South West (West Country) | 34.5 | 0.9 | 13.3 | 0.1 | 31.2 | -1.2 | 12.4 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 0.3 | 5.9 | -1.1 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 23.9 | 0.4 | 9.6 | 0.3 | 33.1 | -5.9 | 10.1 | 0.8 | 4.0 | 0.7 | 19.3 | 3.6 |
| Border | 27.3 | -0.4 | 10.7 | 0.9 | 34.0 | -4.7 | 12.0 | -0.1 | 2.7 | 0.4 | 13.3 | 4.0 |
Ratings January was a bad month for ITV with all audiences recording year on year rating decreases – Men fell the most, down 1.9% points. ITV maintained its position as market leader despite BBC1 performing well in all audiences, its best being ABC1 Adults (up 1.3% 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 | 14.5 | 1.1 | 13.3 | 1.1 | 15.7 | 1.1 | 16.3 | 1.2 | 15.5 | 0.3 | 15.0 | 1.3 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 4.7 | 0.0 | 4.6 | -0.1 | 4.7 | 0.1 | 5.3 | 0.1 | 4.0 | -0.3 | 5.4 | 0.1 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 16.9 | -1.6 | 14.6 | -1.9 | 19.0 | -1.4 | 19.7 | -1.6 | 16.8 | -1.4 | 14.2 | -1.7 |
| C4 | Mon-Sun | 4.4 | 0.2 | 4.4 | 0.4 | 4.4 | 0.1 | 4.8 | 0.1 | 4.5 | 0.3 | 4.7 | 0.5 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.8 | 0.3 | 2.9 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 0.1 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 0.2 |
Subscribers can access the Television database by selecting “Television” from the drop-down box at the top of this page