TV Viewing Round Up – July 1999
Programmes This month saw the return to terrestrial screens of some successful American imports. The beginning of the month saw the start of the fifth series Friends, with the opening episode attracting an impressive 5.81 million viewers. By the middle of the month the second series of Ally McBeal debuted with a strong 3.14 million.
Competition for the Friday night audience stepped up this month. Following the return of Friends on Channel 4, BBC1 started running a series of movie premieres. Vampire in Brooklyn managed to attain an audience of 4.38 million, while Virtuosity pulled in slightly less with 4.23 million viewers.
Viewing The strong performance of last year’s World Cup has meant that there are further year on year drops in viewing figures in July for most stations, with only Channel 5 and cable/satellite stations recording year on year increases. Channel 5 managed to increase its monthly viewing total to one hour and sixteen minutes, up 20% on July 1998 and Other (cable/satellite) viewing stood at three hours and nine minutes, a rise of 2.3%.
Hours & Minutes
| BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others | |
| Jul 99 | 6:22 | 2:23 | 6:39 | 2:23 | 1:16 | 3:09 |
| Jul 98 | 7:00 | 2:44 | 7:13 | 2:27 | 1:03 | 3:05 |
| % Change | -9.0 | -12.8 | -7.8 | -2.9 | 20.0 | 2.3 |
The two major terrestrial channels, BBC1 and ITV, both report a fall in viewing share year on year for July. ITV, which again took the majority 29.9% share this month across all channels, was down 0.7% points; while BBC1 fell 0.9% points to 28.7%.
Channel 5 continued to build its viewing share, averaging 5.8% for July, a rise of 1.2% points. Share of viewing in cable and satellite homes also rose 1.2% points to 14.3%.
Viewing Share
| BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others | |
| Jul-98 | 29.6 | 11.7 | 30.6 | 10.5 | 4.6 | 13.1 |
| Jul-99 | 28.7 | 10.6 | 29.9 | 10.8 | 5.8 | 14.3 |
| % Point Change | -0.9 | -1.1 | -0.7 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 |
The continued improvement of penetration for Channel 5 has meant that its share by franchise area rose in all but two regions. ITV had a bad month, will all but one region reporting a drop in viewing share.
Share by Franchise Area
| Franchise | BBC1 | YoY Point Ch | BBC2 | YoY Point Ch | C4/S4C | YoY Point Ch | Channel 5 | YoY Point Ch | ITV | YoY Point Ch | Others | YoY Point Ch |
| London (Wkdy & Wknd) | 29.2 | -0.7 | 11.1 | -0.3 | 10.9 | 0.8 | 5.7 | 1.2 | 26.8 | -2.3 | 16.4 | 1.5 |
| Midlands (Central) | 26.5 | -0.6 | 10.0 | -1.8 | 10.2 | 1.0 | 8.1 | 2.0 | 28.8 | -2.0 | 16.4 | 1.4 |
| North West (Granada) | 28.5 | 0.5 | 9.8 | -1.1 | 10.6 | 1.2 | 5.0 | 0.3 | 32.1 | -0.5 | 13.9 | -0.4 |
| Yorkshire | 28.2 | -0.1 | 10.4 | -0.4 | 11.2 | 0.4 | 7.2 | 2.0 | 31.7 | -2.1 | 11.2 | 0.2 |
| Central/North Scotland | 26.8 | n/a | 11.1 | n/a | 11.2 | n/a | 7.0 | n/a | 27.0 | n/a | 16.8 | n/a |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 32.3 | 1.0 | 11.2 | -0.7 | 10.0 | 0.6 | 4.1 | -0.2 | 28.8 | -1.2 | 13.6 | 0.5 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 30.6 | -0.3 | 12.2 | -1.3 | 11.4 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 32.7 | 0.3 | 11.9 | 0.8 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 26.6 | -2.3 | 9.4 | -1.3 | 10.5 | -0.2 | 6.1 | 2.5 | 29.3 | -2.1 | 18.0 | 3.3 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 30.0 | -0.7 | 10.9 | -0.2 | 10.3 | 0.3 | 3.3 | 0.9 | 30.8 | -1.0 | 14.6 | 0.5 |
| South West (West Country) | 34.2 | -0.2 | 12.7 | -0.1 | 12.4 | 0.2 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 30.9 | -1.0 | 6.9 | 0.1 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 25.0 | 1.1 | 9.0 | 0.8 | 10.0 | -0.7 | 3.6 | -0.2 | 34.8 | -0.9 | 17.5 | -0.2 |
| Border | 28.3 | -0.6 | 10.2 | -0.1 | 10.9 | -0.2 | 3.7 | 2.0 | 34.9 | -2.4 | 12.0 | 1.4 |
Ratings The absence of News at Ten has done little to improve ITV ratings, with ratings for weekday evenings falling for all but one audience (Housewives/Children). Again the strong performance of last year’s World Cup has resulted in high ratings for July ’98.
Despite the revamped schedule unveiled by ITV, BBC1 was able to outperform its main rival with the key ABC1 Adults audience, although year on year the channel experienced a drop in its ratings.
Network Ratings – 8pm to 11pm
| Station | Day | ABC1 Adults | YoY Ch | Adults | YoY Ch | Hswvs | YoY Ch | Hswvs/Ch | YoY Ch | Men | YoY Ch | Women | YoY Ch |
| BBC1 | Mon-Fri | 11.5 | -1.0 | 11.7 | -1.2 | 13.6 | -1.2 | 12.4 | -2.4 | 10.2 | -1.4 | 13.1 | -1.1 |
| BBC1 | Sat-Sun | 10.6 | -4.1 | 11.1 | -3.4 | 12.8 | -3.2 | 10.8 | -3.2 | 9.7 | -4.2 | 12.4 | -2.7 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Fri | 4.3 | -0.7 | 3.9 | -0.5 | 4.5 | -0.5 | 3.8 | 0.0 | 3.6 | -0.6 | 4.1 | -0.5 |
| BBC2 | Sat-Sun | 3.5 | -0.1 | 3.1 | -0.2 | 3.3 | -0.4 | 2.1 | -0.7 | 3.5 | 0.3 | 2.7 | -0.7 |
| ITV | Mon-Fri | 11.1 | -1.2 | 13.1 | -0.5 | 15.1 | -0.7 | 13.3 | 1.2 | 11.8 | -0.5 | 14.2 | -0.6 |
| ITV | Sat-Sun | 10.9 | -1.2 | 12.1 | -1.6 | 14.8 | -0.5 | 11.2 | -1.9 | 9.8 | -3.2 | 14.4 | 0.1 |
| C4 | Mon-Fri | 4.3 | 0.0 | 4.1 | -0.1 | 4.7 | -0.1 | 4.5 | -0.5 | 3.7 | -0.1 | 4.5 | -0.1 |
| C4 | Sat-Sun | 3.5 | 1.0 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 3.7 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 0.4 | 3.2 | 0.7 | 3.3 | 0.5 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Fri | 2.0 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 0.4 | 3.1 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 0.4 |
| Channel 5 | Sat-Sun | 1.9 | 0.4 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 0.4 |
Subscribers can access the Television database by selecting “Television” from the drop-down box at the top of this page