TV Viewing Round Up – October 1999
Programmes The hype surrounding the six part documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs, helped BBC to recover from its recent poor viewing figures. The first episode drew in a viewing audience of 15 million, which rose to 18.91 million with the inclusion of the Sunday repeat. Subsequent weeks saw a drop in viewing figures for the show, but for the month of October the programme averaged an audience of around 14 million viewers.
ITV’s exclusive television premiere of the eighteenth James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, performed less well than its predecessor Goldeneye, shown earlier in the year. 11.86 million people watched Ian Fleming’s spy take on media mogul Elliot Carver, compared to the 13.23 million who watched him battle 006 in March.
October proved to be very good month ITV, with a number of programmes gaining big audiences. The premiere of Twister attracted an audience of 10.67 million, while Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes had 10.3 million; the two part drama series Trial & Retribution III had 8.64 and 8.72 million for its first and second parts respectively. The three Champions’ League matches involving Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea all pulled in big audiences for ITV, with Man United’s match against Marseille the most successful with 9.69 million viewers.
Viewing Whilst not as spectacularly impressive as last month, Channel 5 continues to outstrip its rivals with its year on year viewing growth. October’s hours and minutes total for the channel increased by 26% in comparison to last year’s figure. Channel 4 was the only station to record a drop in its year on year figures, falling 6.3% on October 1998.
Hours & Minutes
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Oct-99 | 7:22 | 2:40 | 7:59 | 2:30 | 1:27 | 3:36 |
| Oct-98 | 7:00 | 2:38 | 7:41 | 2:40 | 1:09 | 3:18 |
| % Change | 5.2 | 1.3 | 3.9 | -6.3 | 26.0 | 9.0 |
Viewing share across all the channel’s was pretty stagnant, with the biggest increase in share going to Channel 5, up 1% point year on year, while the greatest fall goes to Channel 4, down 1.1% points year on year.
Viewing Share
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Oct-99 | 28.8 | 10.4 | 31.2 | 9.8 | 5.7 | 14.1 |
| Oct-98 | 28.6 | 10.8 | 31.5 | 10.9 | 4.7 | 13.5 |
| % Point Change | 0.2 | -0.4 | -0.3 | -1.1 | 1.0 | 0.6 |
Channel 5’s share of viewing by franchise area continues improve year on year. The station’s best area continues to be the Midlands region, with its share now standing at 8.6% (up 1.6 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) | 28.1 | -0.4 | 10.8 | -0.9 | 26.8 | -1.5 | 10.2 | -0.3 | 6.7 | 1.2 | 17.5 | 2.0 |
| Midlands (Central) | 26.5 | -0.3 | 9.7 | -1.2 | 31.0 | -0.9 | 8.9 | -0.5 | 8.2 | 1.6 | 15.8 | 1.4 |
| North West (Granada) | 26.9 | 0.0 | 9.7 | 0.0 | 32.6 | -1.0 | 9.6 | -0.9 | 5.9 | 0.9 | 15.3 | 0.9 |
| Yorkshire | 26.8 | 0.1 | 10.3 | -0.1 | 34.6 | -0.3 | 10.2 | -0.7 | 7.0 | 0.9 | 11.2 | 0.2 |
| Central/North Scotland | 25.3 | n/a | 9.7 | n/a | 29.6 | n/a | 10.9 | n/a | 6.4 | n/a | 18.2 | n/a |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 31.2 | 0.5 | 10.6 | -0.5 | 33.4 | 2.7 | 9.5 | 0.0 | 4.0 | -0.7 | 11.3 | -2.0 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 29.8 | -1.0 | 11.9 | -1.2 | 33.0 | 0.8 | 10.8 | -0.2 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 13.3 | 1.5 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 26.6 | -0.5 | 9.3 | -0.8 | 29.6 | -1.6 | 9.9 | -0.8 | 6.5 | 0.0 | 18.0 | 3.5 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 29.4 | -1.0 | 11.3 | 0.3 | 31.5 | -0.4 | 9.8 | -0.7 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 14.2 | 0.6 |
| South West (West Country) | 33.1 | -0.8 | 12.3 | -1.2 | 33.3 | 0.7 | 12.0 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 0.2 | 6.8 | 0.9 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 22.3 | -0.2 | 8.9 | 0.8 | 37.0 | -0.3 | 9.7 | 0.1 | 4.0 | -0.1 | 18.0 | -0.4 |
| Border | 27.8 | 1.7 | 10.6 | 1.5 | 37.7 | 0.0 | 11.1 | 0.1 | 3.0 | 0.4 | 9.8 | -3.7 |
Ratings ITV had the best performance of the main terrestrial stations, with increases recorded in all audiences. Housewives with children saw the biggest rise, up 2 points on last year’s total, with Men the next best rising by 1.2 points.
Channel 5 was the only other station to see a ratings increase year on year. Ratings for Women rose by 0.5 points on October 1998, followed closely by ABC1 Adults and Housewives which both increased by 0.4 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 | 12.8 | -0.4 | 11.2 | -0.5 | 14.3 | -0.3 | 14.8 | -0.3 | 13.2 | -0.7 | 13.1 | -0.3 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 4.4 | -0.3 | 4.7 | 0.0 | 4.2 | -0.4 | 4.9 | -0.3 | 3.6 | -0.2 | 4.9 | -0.4 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 16.4 | 0.9 | 14.8 | 1.2 | 18.0 | 0.8 | 18.6 | 0.6 | 17.5 | 2.0 | 14.0 | 1 |
| C4 | Mon-Sun | 3.9 | -0.3 | 3.7 | -0.2 | 4.1 | -0.3 | 4.4 | -0.4 | 4.1 | -0.6 | 4.0 | -0.4 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 3.0 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 3.4 | 0.4 | 2.4 | -0.2 | 2.3 | 0.4 |
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