Digital Television Round-Up – April 2004
Channel 4 saw its average weekly share of viewing inch-up by 0.4% points year on year during April to 9.5% as the last series of hit American sitcom Friends continued to attract large audiences to the channel.
The series reaches its finalé later this week and advertisers look set to pay up to £100,000 for a standard 30-second spot during the final show, which could pull in up to 7 million viewers to Channel 4 (see Advertisers Line Up For Channel 4 Friends Finalé).
Analysis of the latest viewing data from BARB also shows that Five saw its average share of weekly viewing rise during April to 6.8%, as it continued to benefit from moves to distance itself from its down-market image. The channel recently moved to strengthen its science and history programming with two senior appointments (see Five Moves To Boost Science And History Programming).
ITV proved less fortunate with its audience share dipping by 0.8% points during the same period to 23%. However, the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster looks set to benefit from the forthcoming Euro 2004 football championships, which are expected to attract record audiences.
BBC One went from strength to strength during April with its share of viewing rising by a solid 5.6% points to 24.3%. BBC Two failed to emulate the success of its more populist stablemate with share dipping by 0.4% points to just over the 10% mark.
Channel 4 continued to gain ground in digital homes during April with its average share of multi-channel viewing climbing by 0.9% points year on year to 6.8%. Five also performed well with a slight 0.6% points increase, despite recently admitting that it needs to forge closer links with commercial rivals if it is to survive in the increasingly competitive multi-channel environment (see Five To Link With Rivals For Survival In Digital Age).
ITV saw its weekly share of viewing in digital homes decline by 0.5% points year on year to 18.3%. However, the channel is preparing to extend its multi-channel strategy with the launch of ITV3 for older, upmarket viewers and ITV Kids for the lucrative younger generation (see Desmond Outlines New Strategy For Post Merger ITV).
The BBC Channels remained virtually static in all digital homes during April, but other channels saw their combined share of digital viewing increase by 1.3% year on year to just under the 45% mark as they continued to increase their appeal to audiences.
BBC One and BBC Two continued to perform better in Freeview homes than in Sky Digital homes following an extensive advertising campaign to promote their presence on the digital terrestrial platform. BBC One commands a healthy 27% share of viewing in Freeview homes, compared to just 16.3% in Sky homes.
The main commercial channels also performed better in Freeview homes during April, due to the fewer number of channels available on the digital terrestrial platform. However, the wider variety available via Sky Digital helped other channels to command a massive 52% average weekly share of viewing in satellite homes, compared to just under 19% in Freeview homes.
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