TV Viewing Round Up – September 1999
Programmes September is traditionally the month when viewing starts to increase, as the nights draw in and people come back from their summer holidays. With BBC1 and ITV holding back their major new series until the middle and end of the month, Channel 5 was able to post impressive audience totals with its programming.
The network television premiere of the blockbuster film Independence Day gave Channel 5 one of its biggest audiences since it came on air (5.41 million). The following day’s coverage of the vital Euro 2000 qualifiers between Estonia & Scotland and Poland & England gave the channel viewing figures of 1.72 and 5.63 million respectively, whilst also helping the channel record its best ever weekly viewing total (see Channel 5 Reports Best Week Ever).
The return of the cash cow that is Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, helped ITV to post strong audience shares, although the average number of people actually viewing the programme during the 12-day run was down from its March run. The highest audience total for this run was the 14.77 million for Sunday 12 September, this compares to 19.21 million for Sunday 7th March (it looks like maybe the programme could do with being rested).
Viewing Performance of the month definitely goes to Channel 5, which recorded a hugely impressive 79.6% year on year increase in its hours and minutes total, far and away ahead of the other stations. The next best performance goes to viewing for ‘Others’, which went up by 5.8% compared to September 1998.
Hours & Minutes
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Sep-99 | 6:10 | 2:16 | 8:01 | 2:26 | 1:55 | 3:18 |
| Sep-98 | 6:50 | 2:55 | 7:41 | 2:28 | 1:04 | 3:07 |
| % Change | -9.8 | -22.3 | 4.3 | -1.4 | 79.6 | 5.8 |
Channel 5’s very good start to the month as well as greater viewer familarity with the new ITV evening schedule, made those two channels the only two terrestrial stations to record yearly increases in their monthly viewing share. ITV went up by 1.4 points, while Channel 5 did even better rising by 3.5 points on September 1998.
Viewing Share
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Sep-99 | 25.6 | 9.4 | 33.3 | 10.1 | 7.9 | 13.7 |
| Sep-98 | 28.4 | 12.1 | 31.9 | 10.3 | 4.4 | 12.9 |
| % Point Change | -2.8 | -2.7 | 1.4 | -0.2 | 3.5 | 0.8 |
Once again Channel 5 had the best performance of any station for its share of viewing, with the Midlands ITV area recording a rise of 2.6 points on September 1998. Next best for the station was the North East region, which saw its year on year figure climb by 2.5 points.
It was a fairly bad month for the BBC stations, BBC1 saw share go up in five areas but down in six and BBC2 recorded falls in all but the Border region (up 0.6 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 | -0.6 | 10.0 | -1.6 | 27.6 | -0.4 | 10.8 | -0.2 | 6.7 | 1.6 | 16.8 | 1.2 |
| Midlands (Central) | 25.8 | -0.5 | 8.9 | -2.8 | 30.7 | 0.2 | 9.4 | -0.3 | 9.0 | 2.6 | 16.2 | 0.7 |
| North West (Granada) | 26.6 | -0.4 | 8.5 | -2.0 | 32.7 | -0.6 | 9.3 | -1.3 | 6.2 | 1.0 | 16.7 | 3.2 |
| Yorkshire | 27.2 | 0.2 | 9.6 | -1.5 | 33.6 | -1.0 | 10.8 | -0.1 | 7.5 | 2.2 | 11.3 | 0.2 |
| Central/North Scotland | 25.2 | n/a | 9.4 | n/a | 30.1 | n/a | 11.3 | n/a | 7.2 | n/a | 16.7 | n/a |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 32.2 | 1.2 | 9.6 | -2.4 | 31.9 | 1.7 | 9.9 | 0.2 | 4.2 | -0.9 | 12.3 | 0.3 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 30.2 | -0.5 | 11.0 | -2.7 | 33.1 | 1.5 | 11.0 | -0.8 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 13.2 | 1.9 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 26.4 | -1.1 | 8.7 | -1.5 | 30.7 | -0.6 | 10.4 | -0.6 | 7.2 | 2.5 | 16.5 | 1.2 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 30.0 | 0.1 | 10.1 | -1.3 | 31.6 | 0.0 | 10.1 | -0.6 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 14.4 | 0.4 |
| South West (West Country) | 33.3 | 0.2 | 11.6 | -1.5 | 32.8 | 0.7 | 12.3 | 0.0 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 6.4 | -0.8 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 22.0 | -0.6 | 8.1 | -1.6 | 37.9 | 3.0 | 10.4 | 0.0 | 4.2 | 0.4 | 17.5 | -1.2 |
| Border | 28.2 | 1.3 | 10.5 | 0.6 | 37.5 | 0.2 | 11.3 | 0.0 | 3.8 | 1.7 | 8.6 | -3.8 |
Ratings ITV first autumn programme schedule since the demise of News at Ten, has seen the channel record year on year rating increases for all audiences across the 8pm to 11pm time period. Weekday ratings for Housewives saw the highest increase, 2.5 point up on September 1998.
ITV even managed to record increases for it weekend ratings, despite the fact it held back launching the new series of popular programmes like Heartbeat, Blind Date and London’s Burning. Newer programmes like Cold Feet and The Moment of Truth, plus the last two films in the James Bond season helped to push up the rating for ABC1 Adults by 1.7 points.
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-Fri | 11.2 | -0.5 | 9.5 | -1.1 | 12.8 | 0.0 | 13.2 | -0.2 | 12.0 | -0.7 | 11.4 | -0.5 |
| BBC1 | Sat-Sun | 14.0 | -0.8 | 12.6 | -0.2 | 15.3 | -1.4 | 15.7 | -1.4 | 15.0 | -1.7 | 14.1 | -1.3 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Fri | 3.8 | -1.1 | 3.7 | -1.2 | 3.9 | -1.0 | 4.3 | -1.2 | 3.3 | -1.2 | 4.3 | -1.1 |
| BBC2 | Sat-Sun | 3.4 | -0.8 | 3.8 | -0.8 | 3.1 | -0.8 | 3.7 | -0.8 | 2.7 | -0.9 | 3.8 | -0.9 |
| ITV | Mon-Fri | 16.5 | 2.4 | 15.0 | 2.4 | 17.9 | 2.4 | 18.7 | 2.5 | 16.9 | 2.4 | 14.1 | 1.8 |
| ITV | Sat-Sun | 16.6 | 1.2 | 14.6 | 1.1 | 18.4 | 1.2 | 18.9 | 1.1 | 17.6 | 1.5 | 14.8 | 1.7 |
| C4 | Mon-Fri | 4.4 | -0.4 | 4.1 | -0.1 | 4.6 | -0.6 | 4.9 | -0.6 | 4.7 | -1.0 | 4.7 | -0.2 |
| C4 | Sat-Sun | 3.1 | 0.1 | 3.3 | 0.2 | 3.0 | 0.1 | 3.4 | 0.0 | 2.9 | 0.6 | 3.1 | -0.1 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Fri | 3.6 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 1.4 | 3.2 | 0.7 | 3.8 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 0.7 | 2.9 | 1.1 |
| Channel 5 | Sat-Sun | 2.6 | 0.5 | 2.8 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 0.4 | 2.8 | 0.5 | 2.0 | -0.1 | 1.9 | 0.5 |
Subscribers can access the Television database by selecting “Television” from the drop-down box at the top of this page