TV Viewing Round-Up – July 2001
Programmes
July saw the finales of two of the most hyped series of the summer, Survivor and Big Brother, but in fact the top rated programmes during the month remained the same as ever, with EastEnders and Coronation Street battling it out. The ITV soap bagged more of the top spots at the start of the month, but by the end of the month, as the BBC led up to its EastEnders “Night To Remember” week in August, the Coronation Street rival was presenting more of a challenge.
ITV had less luck in holding off the competition with its Survivor final on 25 July. An average audience of 7.92m was good in comparison to the rest of a disappointing series, ratings-wise, but was not enough to beat the Big Brother final two days later, which managed 7.98m. Channel 4’s triumph was slightly tempered by the fact that this figure was down on the previous year’s final.
Drama including Where The Heart Is and Waking The Dead did well for ITV and BBC1 respectively during the month, and BBC1’s new drama series Mersey Beat also got off to a good start. The Monday night police drama opened with an average 8.16m audience, making it the 15th most popular programme during the week ending 22 July. The following week the initial interest had waned slightly to 6.6m, but the new series nevertheless managed number 17 among the top rated programmes.
Viewing
The Big Brother effect was not sufficient to keep Channel 4 from a drop in hours and minutes during the month. However, Channel 4’s 0.2% year on year reduction was slight compared to ITV’s -11.5% and BBC2’s -10.6%. The reduction in ITV’s hours and minutes total saw BBC1 overtake, with 6 hours 12 mins compared to ITV’s 5 hours 54 minutes.
Non-terrestrial channels, which regularly see significant increases in performance, had a more modest month, with an 11.7% increase year on year.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Jul-2001 | 6:12 | 2:24 | 5:54 | 2:28 | 1:20 | 4:36 |
| Jul-2000 | 6:14 | 2:41 | 6:40 | 2:31 | 1:23 | 3:47 |
| % Change | -0.5 | -10.6 | -11.5 | -2.0 | -3.6 | 11.7 |
Among the terrestrial channels BBC1 and Channel 4 managed to increase their viewing share year on year, the former by 0.7 percentage points and the latter by an even smaller 0.1 percentage points. However, with ITV dropping 2.4 percentage points in its viewing share year on year, BBC1 found itself ahead, with a 27.1% share compared to ITV’s 25.8%.
Meanwhile the non-terrestrials continue to gain influence, passing the 20% mark compared to last year, with an increase of 2.6 percentage points.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Jul-2001 | 27.1 | 10.5 | 25.8 | 10.8 | 5.8 | 20.1 |
| Jul-2000 | 26.4 | 11.4 | 28.2 | 10.7 | 5.9 | 17.5 |
| % Point Change | 0.7 | -0.9 | -2.4 | 0.1 | -0.1 | 2.6 |
BBC1 continued a good month with some reasonable increases in share in certain franchise areas. Most notable was in South and South East and Channel Islands, where share was up 2.6 percentage points. There was less positive news for ITV and BBC2 which saw falls across the board, while even the non-terrestrials saw some year on year decline in areas including the North East.
| 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) | 28.6 | 1.2 | 11.2 | -1.0 | 23.4 | -2.1 | 10.8 | -0.1 | 6.5 | -0.3 | 19.6 | 2.3 |
| Midlands (Central) | 25.7 | -0.5 | 10.3 | -0.8 | 25.2 | -3.3 | 10.5 | 0.6 | 7.6 | 0.2 | 20.6 | 3.6 |
| North West (Granada) | 25.5 | 1.7 | 9.9 | -0.3 | 25.4 | -3.7 | 10.1 | 0.5 | 6.1 | 0.2 | 23.0 | 1.6 |
| Yorkshire | 25.7 | -0.1 | 10.0 | -1.1 | 27.4 | -4.3 | 11.3 | 0.1 | 6.5 | 0.1 | 19.1 | 5.3 |
| Central/North Scotland | 25.4 | 1.5 | 10.4 | -0.7 | 25.1 | -2.3 | 10.4 | -0.2 | 6.5 | -0.7 | 22.1 | 2.3 |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 28.1 | -0.5 | 9.4 | -1.9 | 25.9 | -1.4 | 8.6 | -0.8 | 4.4 | 0.1 | 23.6 | 4.5 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 29.9 | 2.6 | 11.7 | -0.9 | 27.1 | -2.0 | 10.8 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 18.6 | -0.3 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 25.8 | 1.7 | 10.3 | -0.2 | 26.7 | -2.7 | 11.2 | 1.2 | 7.3 | 0.6 | 18.8 | -0.4 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 26.9 | -0.4 | 9.7 | -0.9 | 26.3 | -3.2 | 10.8 | 0.6 | 4.2 | 0.4 | 22.0 | 3.4 |
| South West (West Country) | 32.6 | 0.8 | 12.4 | -1.0 | 27.7 | -2.9 | 12.2 | -0.7 | 2.6 | 0.1 | 12.4 | 3.6 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 23.7 | -1.0 | 8.3 | -1.1 | 27.2 | -2.3 | 9.4 | -0.5 | 3.5 | -0.7 | 27.9 | 5.6 |
| Border | 25.1 | 0.5 | 10.8 | -0.2 | 32.6 | -0.7 | 9.6 | -1.1 | 3.1 | 0.4 | 18.8 | 1.2 |
Channel 4 was the only channel to achieve an increase in peaktime ratings, including increases in Housewives with Children and ABC1 Adults of 1.9 percentage points year on year for each.
ITV was the worst performer in this respect, with Men, Women and Housewives all showing year on year decreases of 1.3 percentage points.
| 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 | 9.6 | -0.2 | 10.8 | -0.1 | 9.7 | -0.1 | 11.7 | -0.3 | 12.4 | -0.1 | 10.8 | -0.9 | 10.6 | -0.9 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 3.2 | -0.2 | 3.7 | -0.1 | 3.9 | 0.0 | 3.4 | -0.3 | 4.1 | -0.1 | 2.6 | -0.4 | 4.1 | -0.4 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 10.8 | -1.0 | 12.0 | -1.2 | 10.0 | -1.3 | 13.8 | -1.3 | 14.4 | -1.3 | 11.8 | -0.4 | 9.7 | -0.4 |
| Channel 4 | Mon-Sun | 4.4 | 0.5 | 4.9 | 0.6 | 4.3 | 0.2 | 5.4 | 1.0 | 5.6 | 0.8 | 6.6 | 1.9 | 4.9 | 1.9 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.5 | -0.2 | 2.8 | -0.2 | 2.8 | -0.3 | 2.7 | -0.3 | 3.2 | -0.3 | 2.4 | -0.6 | 2.4 | -0.6 |
Subscribers can access the Television database by selecting “Television” from the drop-down box at the top of this page.