TV Viewing Round Up – June 2000

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3 minutes

Programmes June must have been torture for those people who don’t enjoy sport. If you somehow managed to avoid football’s Euro 2000 tournament on either of the main two terrestrial channels, you probably couldn’t miss Test Match cricket, Formula One grand prix or the first week of Wimbledon 2000. Surprisingly, considering how badly England played…


Programmes June must have been torture for those people who don’t enjoy sport. If you somehow managed to avoid football’s Euro 2000 tournament on either of the main two terrestrial channels, you probably couldn’t miss Test Match cricket, Formula One grand prix or the first week of Wimbledon 2000.

Surprisingly, considering how badly England played and how quickly they were knocked out the tournament, viewing figures for the duration of Euro 2000 remained quite high. The most watched match of the competition was the farce/tragedy/comedy of errors Portugal versus England game, which had 14.94 million people shouting all manner of obscenities come full time. The second highest watched match was the England versus Romania match, in which 14.56 million people were united in questioning Phil Neville’s parentage.

If you were looking for variety, then June was and wasn’t the month to be watching television. Following on from ITV’s recently launched variety show Tonight At The London Palladium, BBC1 hits back with virtual carbon copy Jim Davidson Presents, with viewing figures of 7.76 and 5.72 million respectively.

Viewing Despite near wall-to-wall coverage of Euro 2000 on both ITV and BBC1, average hours and minutes fell year on year in June. Compared to June 1999 total viewing fell by 2.6 and 5.4 percent, for ITV and BBC1 respectively. Despite having the majority coverage of Wimbledon 2000, BBC2 also recorded a year on year fall in average hours and minutes for June. Compared to June 1999, viewing was down by 10.9 per cent.

Channel 5 and non-terrestrial stations (Others) continue to outstrip their broadcast rivals, with year on year increases above 10%. Channel 5 and Others were up 11.3% and 14.6% on June 1999.

Hours & Minutes
MonthBBC1BBC2ITVC4/S4CChannel 5Others
Jun-20006:232:276:592:311:283:47
Jun-19996:452:457:102:291:193:18
% Change-5.4-10.9-2.61.311.314.6
ChartObject Network Hrs/Mins YoY Comparisons

Only Others recorded a significant increase in year on year viewing share. In June 2000 Others share of viewing was 16.1 percentage, an increase of 2.24 percentage points.

Viewing Share
MonthBBC1BBC2ITVC4/S4CChannel 5Others
Jun-200027.1010.4029.6010.706.2016.10
Jun-199928.4211.5930.1310.435.5713.86
% Point Change-1.32-1.19-0.530.270.632.24
ChartObject Network Share YoY Comparisons

Franchise viewing share is pretty consistent among the established stations this month, with share mainly falling for BBC’s 1, 2 and ITV. Others recorded the highest year on year increase in franchise viewing share, rising five percentage points in the North West and Wales & West regions.

Share by Franchise Area
Franchise AreaBBC1YoY Point ChBBC2YoY Point ChITVYoY Point ChC4/S4CYoY Point ChChannel 5YoY Point ChOthersYoY Point Ch
London (Wkdy & Wknd)27.8-1.010.9-1.426.40.710.90.96.80.917.3-0.1
Midlands (Central)26.5-0.410.1-1.729.1-0.110.31.48.10.416.00.5
North West (Granada)24.8-2.69.3-1.030.3-2.49.5-0.56.51.519.65.0
Yorkshire27.1-0.710.1-0.732.3-0.311.81.16.80.312.00.5
Central/North Scotland25.2-0.98.7-0.928.40.910.8-1.47.81.019.11.2
Wales & West (HTV)28.6-3.110.8-1.128.3-1.39.70.44.40.118.25.0
South & South East & Channel Islands27.9-3.212.4-0.830.4-1.211.30.51.40.316.64.5
North East (Tyne Tees)25.3-0.99.5-1.030.4-0.310.0-1.07.11.017.72.3
East (Anglia TV)27.9-2.010.2-1.431.00.310.30.63.70.317.02.2
South West (West Country)32.1-1.413.6-0.730.80.612.30.73.10.08.00.7
Ulster (UTV)25.91.48.20.231.4-3.69.6-0.64.2-0.120.62.7
Border26.2-2.59.5-0.633.2-1.710.6-1.32.6-1.117.97.4

Ratings Despite the increased number of repeated programmes, such as A Touch of Frost, An Audience with Kenneth Williams and Dennis Norden’s Laughter Files (!), ITV still manages to retain strong peaktime audience ratings. The crucial ABC1 Adults rating increased by 0.5 percentage points on last year’s figures.

The biggest fall in peaktime ratings was for BBC1’s Women, down 2.7 percentage points, possibly in reaction to the coverage of Euro 2000 and Wimbledon 2000.

Network Ratings – 8pm to 11pm
StationDayAdultsYoY ChMenYoY ChWomenYoY ChHwivesYoY ChHswvs/ChYoY ChABC1 AdultsYoY Ch
BBC1Mon-Sun11.4-1.411.30.211.6-2.712.4-2.511.5-1.511.3-1.6
BBC2Mon-Sun3.8-0.23.8-0.43.80.04.2-0.22.8-0.14.3-0.4
ITVMon-Sun14.10.312.80.615.2-0.215.8-0.214.6-0.812.30.5
Channel 4Mon-Sun4.20.33.80.24.60.45.00.64.30.14.40.4
Channel 5Mon-Sun3.20.43.20.23.30.73.70.63.00.92.10.1

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