TV Viewing Round Up – September 2001
Programmes This month’s viewing can best be described as a game of two halves, with half time being the precise moment people found out about the terrorist attacks on 11th September. The beginning of the month started well with the nation carried away with the euphoria of that football match between Germany and England. BBC1’s Match of the Day Live attracted a very healthy audience of 11.11 million, proving that viewers are prepared to watch football on Saturday night during primetime.
The amazing 5-1 success of the England football team helped BBC1 to build the audience for the following Wednesday’s qualifying match against Albania. MOTD Live attracted an average viewing figure of 11.64 million, making it the most watched sporting event of the year.
The events of 11th September proved once again that in times of crisis people turn to their television set. The viewer demand to be kept up to date with the latest news meant drastically altered television schedules (see US Attack Sparks News Marathon). The day of the attack seemed to prove that viewers wanted their news early, with BBC1’s Six O’Clock News attracting the highest audience – 9.36 million viewers. ITV’s most watched news programme during the week of the attacks was the Saturday edition of ITV Weekend News, with 8.84 million viewers tuning in.
With television companies worried about the nation’s sensitivity during the period after 11th September, several programmes were dropped from the schedules and replaced with more uplifting fare. An old episode of Only Fools & Horses attracted 8.36 million viewers, while It’ll Be Alright On The Night 12 gave ITV 7.88 million viewers. The terrorist attacks even affected ITV comedy drama Goodbye Mr Steadman (originally titled Dead), which achieved a respectable audience of 6.62 million.
Viewing
Viewing hours and minutes saw considerable year on year reductions for both the major terrestrial channels. ITV, as seems to be the pattern at the moment, was worse hit, losing 13.3% of its average hours and minutes compared to September 2000, with a total of 6 hours 10 minutes. BBC1, having dropped 5.9% year on year managed to keep ahead of its commercial rival by achieving an average of 6 hours 49 minutes.
Where the terrestrials lost, other channels, including the 24 hour news channels which came into their own during the New York/Washington crisis, gained to the tune of a 21.9% increase year on year to an average viewing hours and minutes total of 5 hours and 5 minutes.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Sep-2001 | 6:49 | 2:36 | 6:10 | 2:22 | 1:25 | 5:05 |
| Sep-2000 | 7:15 | 2:42 | 7:07 | 2:43 | 1:23 | 4:12 |
| % Change | -5.9 | -3.7 | -13.3 | -12.9 | 2.4 | 21.0 |
Most of the terrestrial channels held their share of viewing fairly steady in a year on year comparison. The exception was ITV1, which saw a drop of 2.8 percentage points. This meant that BBC1, with a share of 27.9% saw its lead over ITV1 extend despite a small drop in its own share, with the difference have moved from 0.5 percent of a point during September 2000 to 2.6 percentage points this year.
Other channels increased their gain to top the 20% mark during the month, up 4.3 percentage points on last year.
| Month | BBC1 | BBC2 | ITV | C4/S4C | Channel 5 | Others |
| Sep-2001 | 27.9 | 10.6 | 25.3 | 9.7 | 5.8 | 20.8 |
| Sep-2000 | 28.6 | 10.6 | 28.1 | 10.7 | 5.5 | 16.5 |
| % Point Change | -0.7 | 0.0 | -2.8 | -1.0 | 0.3 | 4.3 |
ITV1 and BBC1 saw drops in viewing share across all the ITV franchise areas this month. The worst drops were in the North West for ITV1 and in Wales & West for BBC1. BBC2 and Channel 5 had a more positive month in this respect, with BBC2 seeing increases including a 1.4 percentage point gain in the North East and Channnel 5 a 1.1 percentage point gain in the North West. Channel 4 fared less well, its worst areas being Wales & West and Yorkshire, where, in both cases, a fall of 1.5 percentage points was seen. Other channels gained across the board, in particular in the Ulster region, where percentage share rose 7 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) | 28.4 | -2.6 | 10.9 | -0.5 | 23.0 | -1.9 | 10.0 | 0.1 | 6.5 | 0.8 | 21.1 | 3.9 |
| Midlands (Central) | 26.7 | -2.7 | 10.5 | 0.2 | 25.7 | -2.6 | 9.0 | -0.1 | 7.8 | 0.4 | 20.5 | 4.9 |
| North West (Granada) | 26.7 | -0.5 | 10.1 | 0.6 | 25.4 | -4.7 | 8.6 | -1.1 | 6.6 | 1.1 | 22.7 | 4.8 |
| Yorkshire | 26.2 | -1.5 | 10.5 | 0.7 | 27.6 | -3.6 | 9.5 | -1.5 | 5.8 | -0.2 | 20.4 | 6.2 |
| Central/North Scotland | 25.5 | -0.4 | 9.8 | 0.4 | 25.0 | -3.9 | 9.4 | -0.7 | 7.2 | 0.2 | 23.1 | 4.4 |
| Wales & West (HTV) | 29.5 | -3.4 | 10.2 | -0.4 | 23.6 | -1.5 | 7.3 | -1.5 | 4.6 | 0.7 | 24.7 | 6.1 |
| South & South East & Channel Islands | 29.5 | -1.3 | 12.6 | 0.8 | 26.1 | -2.3 | 10.3 | -0.9 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 19.6 | 3.3 |
| North East (Tyne Tees) | 26.4 | -0.3 | 10.6 | 1.4 | 25.7 | -3.6 | 10.1 | 0.1 | 7.1 | 0.2 | 20.1 | 2.2 |
| East (Anglia TV) | 28.5 | -1.8 | 10.1 | 0.2 | 24.9 | -3.4 | 9.3 | -0.4 | 4.0 | 0.8 | 23.1 | 4.4 |
| South West (West Country) | 34.4 | -2.4 | 12.3 | 0.4 | 26.7 | -1.2 | 11.3 | 0.3 | 2.9 | -0.4 | 12.3 | 3.2 |
| Ulster (UTV) | 23.4 | -0.6 | 8.9 | -0.4 | 28.0 | -3.9 | 8.1 | -1.7 | 3.4 | -0.5 | 28.2 | 7.0 |
| Border | 25.4 | -2.3 | 11.0 | 0.8 | 32.0 | -1.0 | 10.9 | 0.5 | 3.4 | 1.0 | 17.2 | 0.9 |
Ratings
ITV1 did not do well in a year on year comparison of prime time network ratings for September. With drops across the board, its worst hit areas were ABC1 Adults, Houswives with Children and Women, which all fell 2.4 points. Meanwhile, its rival BBC1 increased its ratings across the board, in particular with Men, which rose 1.3 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 | 11.4 | 0.7 | 12.7 | 0.8 | 11.8 | 1.3 | 13.5 | 0.2 | 14.4 | 0.5 | 13.3 | 0.8 | 12.7 | 0.8 |
| BBC2 | Mon-Sun | 3.7 | 0.2 | 4.2 | 0.3 | 4.5 | 0.5 | 3.9 | 0.2 | 4.6 | 0.3 | 3.6 | 0.2 | 4.5 | 0.2 |
| ITV | Mon-Sun | 11.3 | -2.2 | 12.7 | -2.3 | 10.9 | -2.2 | 14.3 | -2.4 | 15.0 | -2.3 | 12.5 | -2.4 | 10.9 | -2.4 |
| Channel 4 | Mon-Sun | 3.5 | -0.8 | 4.0 | -0.6 | 3.6 | -0.5 | 4.2 | -1.0 | 4.5 | -0.8 | 4.3 | -1.9 | 4.1 | -1.9 |
| Channel 5 | Mon-Sun | 2.4 | -0.1 | 2.7 | -0.1 | 2.8 | -0.3 | 2.6 | 0.0 | 3.1 | 0.0 | 2.3 | -0.3 | 2.3 | -0.3 |
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