Was this the defining fortnight for television?
It has been a busy few weeks in the world of Television, with the release of Ofcom’s long-awaited PSB blueprint and Lord Carter’s much-anticipated Digital Britain report, but what will the future really hold for commercial television?
New figures from Sky and Freeview+ show that both platforms have managed to defy the downturn, reporting significant sales increases in the last quarter of 2008.
Sales of Freeview+ boxes reached record highs in Q4 2008 – with more than two boxes being sold every minute in December, which means Freeview+ sales have now hit more than 900,000 – up by around 118% compared with December 2007 (see Freeview+ sales soar).
Sky also posted impressive sales figures – adding 171,000 customers in the second quarter of 2008 alone, taking its total customer base to around 9.2 million in total.
However, while these reports suggest a positive outlook for Pay TV businesses, Enders Analysis’s recent research predicts that advertising funded channels will continue to struggle in the short term (see TV ad spend down despite increase in viewers).
Enders forecasts a 10% annual decline in TV ad spend this year, with advertisers holding back on spending until the economy shows real signs of recovery, which is unlikely to happen until 2010.
According to Enders, the main commercial broadcasters – ITV, Channel 4 and RTL-owned Five – will make losses this year as a result of ad cuts.
However, ITV’s chairman Michael Grade begs to differ, and, though he admits that the industry is “severely challenged” at the moment, he sees a brighter future ahead.
Speaking before the Lord’s PSB Committee hearing yesterday, Grade said ITV “will survive” the downturn – “we are only in a temporary position, which will change when the market starts to gather pace,” he added.
“We’ll be in a fitter state when the economy returns as a result of what we’re doing now. We’ll be thriving,” Grade said.
Thinkbox’s new report shows that TV viewing has reached an all time high, despite short-term concerns amid the downturn – the average person watched 26 hours and 18 minutes of TV each week in 2008, up 48 minutes on 2007 (see TV viewing reaches a record high).
The growth was largely driven by commercial TV channels, which now accounts for 63% of all broadcast TV viewing – an increase of one hour, 20 minutes a week in the last ten years.
The latest figures from Thinkbox also show that the total number of advertisements watched at normal speed reached an all time high in 2008, up 6.3% year on year, with a significant 2.4 billion commercials watched each day.
A number of other factors have also contributed to the growth of TV, including the rapid take-up of digital TV services, digital television recorders, online TV, big entertainment shows such as The X Factor, bad weather and most recently, the economic downturn.
ITV’s director of group marketing David Pemsel, Disney’s executive vice president Tricia Wilber and Top UP TV’s commercial director are among a number of panelists who will discuss all of the issues above, and many more, at MediaTel’s ‘Future of Television’ seminar next week.
For more information or to book, please click here.