TV Viewing Round Up – March 2001
Programmes The top rated programme of the month was the whodunnit shooting of Phil Mitchell in Eastenders. The programme shown on 1 March was watched by an average audience of 18.01m.
Despite the hype surrounding the shooting of the ‘nice’ Mitchell brother, the must-see programme of the month had to be Raw Spice. Featuring behind-the- scenes footage of the girlpower pop group when they were still a five piece, Raw Spice had 9.76m viewers (probably commenting on how much Posh Spice had changed).
Manchester United’s Champions League match with Panathinaikos did well for ITV, attracting an audience of 8.27 million. Other programmes doing well this month included: the first part of BBC1’s Inspector Lynley Mysteries, which was watched by 8.37m people; Tarrant On CCTV, watched by 8.74m viewers; Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em clone Lee Evans – So What Now?, which had 7.85m viewers; the first part of NCS – Manhunt with a 7.41m audience.
Viewing There’s been a turnaround in the BBC’s fortunes, with BBC1 and BBC2 both recording increases in the year on year average hours and minutes viewed. During March 2001 BBC1 was watched on average for 7 hours and 21 minutes (up 4.5% year on year), while BBC2 had people tuning in on average for 3 hours and 3 minutes (10.9% year on year increase).
With the continued proliferation of digital channels, it comes as no surprise that viewing for non-terrestrial stations (Others) has once again recorded the highest year on year increase in average hours and minutes total. For March 2001 Others recorded an average hours and minutes total of 4 hours and 49 minutes (a 21.4% increase year on year).
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Mar-2001 | 7:21 | 3:03 | 7:42 | 2:38 | 1:30 | 4:49 |
| Mar-2000 | 7:02 | 2:45 | 7:52 | 2:40 | 1:28 | 3:58 |
| % Change | 4.5 | 10.9 | -2.1 | -1.3 | 2.3 | 21.4 |
Thanks to its improved hours and minute, BBC2 was the only terrestrial station to record an increase in its viewing share total. March 2001 saw BBC2’s viewing share rise 0.6 percentage points to 11.3%.
The only other increase in viewing share was recorded by Others, which rose to 17.8%.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Mar-2001 | 27.2 | 11.3 | 28.5 | 9.7 | 5.6 | 17.8 |
| Mar-2000 | 27.3 | 10.7 | 30.6 | 10.4 | 5.7 | 15.4 |
| % Point Change | -0.1 | 0.6 | -2.1 | -0.7 | -0.1 | 2.4 |
ITV had a bad month, with viewing share by ITV franchise area recording falls , in all but one region (Border). The worst affected area was South, South East and Channel Islands, which fell by 4.3 percentage points on March 2000’s figures. Channel 4 performed just as badly as ITV with all its regions except South recording year on year falls.
Only Others records viewing share increase across all ITV regions, with South West performing best (up 4.6 percentage points).
| 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) | 27.8 | -0.1 | 11.5 | 0.5 | 25.6 | -1.6 | 9.4 | -0.9 | 6.1 | -0.3 | 19.5 | 2.3 |
| Midlands (Central) | 26.2 | 0.3 | 10.7 | 0.3 | 28.0 | -2.5 | 9.3 | -0.1 | 7.5 | 0.0 | 18.2 | 1.9 |
| North West (Granada) | 26.3 | 0.6 | 10.7 | 1.2 | 29.4 | -1.8 | 8.8 | -0.6 | 5.5 | -0.4 | 19.2 | 0.9 |
| Yorkshire | 26.0 | -1.3 | 11.1 | 0.7 | 30.9 | -2.0 | 10.5 | -0.3 | 6.0 | -0.5 | 15.4 | 3.3 |
| Central/North Scotland | 25.5 | 0.8 | 10.4 | 1.7 | 27.6 | -1.8 | 10.1 | -1.2 | 6.8 | -0.7 | 19.6 | 1.1 |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 30.4 | -1.6 | 11.6 | 1.3 | 27.1 | -1.9 | 8.5 | -0.7 | 4.0 | 0.1 | 18.4 | 2.7 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 28.3 | -1.2 | 13.3 | 0.8 | 28.5 | -4.3 | 10.9 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 17.5 | 4.3 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 25.0 | -1.1 | 10.2 | 0.8 | 28.8 | -2.3 | 9.1 | -0.4 | 6.7 | 0.5 | 20.1 | 2.4 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 26.5 | -1.3 | 11.2 | 0.1 | 29.8 | -1.1 | 9.6 | -0.8 | 3.7 | 0.0 | 19.2 | 3.0 |
| South West (West Country) | 31.5 | -2.8 | 12.9 | 0.0 | 30.6 | -0.1 | 10.7 | -1.1 | 2.4 | -0.6 | 11.9 | 4.6 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 23.9 | 1.3 | 8.7 | 0.3 | 31.5 | -3.4 | 8.7 | -1.2 | 3.8 | 0.1 | 23.4 | 2.8 |
| Border | 24.4 | -2.3 | 10.2 | -0.7 | 35.9 | 0.5 | 9.5 | -1.2 | 3.0 | 0.1 | 17.0 | 3.7 |
Ratings ITV had a bad month ratings-wise with peaktime ratings for Housewives and ABC1 Adults both falling 1.5 percentage points. The only audience to record an increase was Women (up 0.1 percentage points). BBC1 didn’t fare much better with only Men recording an increase (up 0.4 percentage points) and all other audiences either staying the same or slipping slightly.
Channel 4 had the best ratings performance with all its audiences recording year on year increases. Housewives and ABC1 Adults were the best performing audience rising 0.9 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 | 11.1 | 0.0 | 12.3 | 0.0 | 11.3 | 0.4 | 13.3 | -0.4 | 14.1 | -0.1 | 12.8 | 0.0 | 12.6 | 0.0 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 3.9 | -0.3 | 4.4 | -0.4 | 4.5 | -0.4 | 4.3 | -0.3 | 4.8 | -0.4 | 4.5 | 0.6 | 5.0 | 0.6 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 14.1 | -0.3 | 15.7 | -0.2 | 13.5 | -0.6 | 17.7 | 0.1 | 18.3 | -0.1 | 15.1 | -1.5 | 12.9 | -1.5 |
| Channel 4 | Mon-Sun | 4.1 | 0.5 | 4.6 | 0.7 | 4.4 | 0.7 | 4.8 | 0.6 | 5.2 | 0.7 | 5.4 | 0.9 | 5.0 | 0.9 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.8 | 0.0 | 3.1 | 0.0 | 3.4 | 0.1 | 2.7 | -0.2 | 3.3 | 0.4 | 2.9 | -0.5 | 2.9 | -0.5 |
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