TV Viewing Round Up – November 1999
Programmes ITV’s decision to screen nine editions of Coronation Street, five episodes of Emmerdale and a week’s worth of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, helped the channel to pull in big audiences. The late night editions of Coronation Street: After Hours boosted ITV’s old News at Ten slot, with the best weekday performance coming on Monday (11.55 million viewers) and the best overall performance on Saturday (12.48 million viewers).
The head on costume drama battle between BBC1’s Wives and Daughters and ITV’s Oliver Twist resulted in a victory for ITV. The opening episodes of both adaptions gained audiences of over 8 million, with 9.23 million people watching Oliver Twist and 8.13 million people tuning in to Wives and Daughters.
The returning episode of Jonathan Creek pulled in 11.02 million viewers for BBC1, helping to improve the channel’s already strong Saturday night line-up. The Sean Bean drama Extremely Dangerous proved to be a hit with viewers, with the opening episode attracting 11.13 million. Proving that there is still public interest in music from a group which split up over 15 years ago, Abbamania attracted 10.09 million viewers.
Viewing Once again Channel 5 continues to outperform its rivals with its year on year viewing increases. November’s hours and minutes total for the channel increased by 21% in comparison to last year’s figure. Both BBC stations recorded drops in their year on year figures, with BBC1 falling 5.3% and BBC2 falling by 2.8%.
Hours & Minutes
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Nov-99 | 7:34 | 2:56 | 7:37 | 2:48 | 1:32 | 3:47 |
| Nov-98 | 7:59 | 3:01 | 7:20 | 2:44 | 1:16 | 3:26 |
| % Change | -5.3 | -2.8 | 3.4 | 2.4 | 21.0 | 10.2 |
Viewing share across all the channels was, like last month, pretty much unchanged year on year. The biggest increase in share went to viewing of non-terrestrial channels, up 1.0% point year on year. Like hours and minutes totals, only the BBC stations recorded year on year falls, with BBC1 down 2.0% points and BBC2 down 0.5% points.
Viewing Share
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Nov-99 | 27.8 | 10.8 | 31.6 | 10.4 | 5.6 | 13.8 |
| Nov-98 | 29.8 | 11.3 | 31.2 | 10.1 | 4.8 | 12.8 |
| % Point Change | -2.0 | -0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.0 |
Continuing the trends from above, BBC1 and BBC2’s share of viewing by franchise area fell year on year in nearly all ITV region, with only the Border region recording a year on year increase for both channels (up 0.4 and 0.7 points respectively).
Channel 5 continues to improve its year on year share of viewing by franchise area. The station’s best area is once again the Midlands region, with its share at 7.9% (up 1.7% points on 1998).
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) | 27.9 | -2.7 | 11.0 | -1.3 | 26.5 | -0.4 | 10.3 | 0.1 | 6.4 | 1.2 | 17.9 | 3.1 |
| Midlands (Central) | 26.8 | -1.8 | 10.3 | -0.7 | 31.8 | 1.2 | 9.5 | 0.7 | 7.9 | 1.7 | 13.6 | -1.2 |
| North West (Granada) | 26.7 | -1.6 | 9.7 | -0.5 | 33.2 | 0.4 | 9.6 | -0.4 | 5.6 | 1.1 | 15.3 | 1.2 |
| Yorkshire | 26.8 | -1.5 | 10.5 | -0.2 | 34.7 | 0.9 | 10.3 | 0.5 | 6.6 | 0.6 | 11.1 | -0.2 |
| Central/North Scotland | 25.1 | n/a | 10.2 | n/a | 29.8 | n/a | 11.7 | n/a | 6.6 | n/a | 16.5 | n/a |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 31.1 | -1.6 | 11.3 | -0.2 | 32.7 | 2.2 | 9.7 | 0.2 | 3.6 | 0.1 | 11.5 | -0.9 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 30.0 | -2.1 | 12.1 | -1.5 | 32.1 | 0.1 | 11.2 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 13.3 | 1.9 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 26.8 | -1.8 | 10.3 | 0.1 | 32.1 | 0.4 | 9.5 | -0.7 | 6.2 | 0.5 | 15.2 | 1.1 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 29.6 | -2.5 | 10.9 | -0.4 | 31.4 | 0.1 | 10.0 | 1.0 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 14.9 | 1.3 |
| South West (West Country) | 33.6 | -2.4 | 13.4 | -0.5 | 31.9 | 1.4 | 12.3 | 1.3 | 2.5 | -0.3 | 6.4 | 0.5 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 22.3 | -1.8 | 8.9 | 0.3 | 36.5 | -0.2 | 10.3 | 0.7 | 4.0 | -0.1 | 17.9 | 1.0 |
| Border | 27.8 | 0.4 | 10.5 | 0.7 | 37.1 | -2.4 | 11.5 | 1.0 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 10.4 | -0.4 |
Ratings The week-long run of big hitter programmes helped to greatly inflate ITV year on year ratings. The Network is seeing the greatest improvement for the Women and Housewives with Children categories, both up 1.4 points year on year.
Once again the BBC stations were badly effected by the ITV onslaught, with all audiences recording year on year falls – the worst performance goes to BBC1’s ABC1 Adults (down 1.5 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 | 12.7 | -1.1 | 11.1 | -1.2 | 14.2 | -1.0 | 14.8 | -1.0 | 13.6 | -0.2 | 12.8 | -1.5 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 4.6 | -0.3 | 4.9 | -0.2 | 4.4 | -0.3 | 5.1 | -0.3 | 3.7 | -0.5 | 5.1 | -0.6 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 17.5 | 1.2 | 15.7 | 1.0 | 19.3 | 1.4 | 19.9 | 1.1 | 18.2 | 1.4 | 14.6 | 0.5 |
| C4 | Mon-Sun | 4.3 | 0.3 | 4.2 | 0.5 | 4.4 | 0.2 | 4.8 | 0.3 | 4.5 | -0.1 | 4.5 | 0.4 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.9 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 0.2 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 3.3 | 0.4 | 2.4 | -0.1 | 2.2 | 0.3 |
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