Television Viewing Round-Up – October 2006

October saw viewing shares fall year on year across most terrestrial channels, with BBC One and ITV1 both seeing dips of over 1 percentage point.

In digital homes, viewing shares remained relatively static year on year, with BBC Two seeing the greatest change, with an increase of 0.8 percentage points.

ITV1 saw its viewing share fall year on year in October by 1.8 percentage points, even though the broadcaster had brought back prize dramas Cracker and Prime Suspect (see 7.6 Million Adults Tune In To Prime Suspect Farewell) to the schedule.

BBC One also suffered a dip in viewing, dropping 1.3 percentage points year on year, however the channel kept the number one slot in viewing share in all TV homes, with 22.2% of all viewing.

Channel 4 and BBC Two both remained relatively static year on year while Five dropped 0.8 percentage points.

Multichannel viewing increased by 4 percentage points year on year, as more households sign up to digital TV.

A similar pattern could be seen for ITV1 in digital TV homes, as viewing share slipped by 0.7 percentage points year on year, ending October with 18.4% share.

BBC Two saw the greatest increase, as share increased by 0.8 percentage points, aided by strong weekly viewing figures by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant’s Extras (see Last Episode Of Extras Gets 3.4 Million).

Five saw its viewing share dip slightly in October, by 0.5 percentage points. The broadcaster launched two new channels in mid-October, FiveUS and FiveLife, as well as launch its own Video-On-Demand service, Five Download (see Five Launches VOD Service).

BBC1 continued to be the most popular terrestrial channel in both Sky and Freeview homes during October, with 20% of viewing in Sky homes and 24% in Freeview homes.

Multichannel meanwhile continued to take the lion’s share of viewing in both Sky and Freeview homes due to the extra channel choice available.

Data to form this report can be found in the Television database on mediatel.co.uk within the “Weekly – Analysis by Platform” section. For any assistance please contact the helpdesk on 020 7439 7575.

BARB: www.barb.co.uk