LONDON (Brand Republic) – UK commercial broadcaster ITV is expected to persuade advertisers today that it has addressed the problem of declining audience share with a strengthened schedule.
ITV pointed to the success of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and the last episode of Inspector Morse, and said it plans to increase the frequency of soap opera Emmerdale from two days to five days a week.
During 2000, ITV’s share of the peak-time audience was 37.1% -- missing its own target of 38.5%.
The commercial broadcaster is believed to be losing out to rival terrestrial broadcasters Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as to News Corporation’s satellite service BSkyB.
ITV is coming under increasing pressure to sign up for carriage with BSkyB, but ITV is resisting a deal because the two largest ITV companies, Granada Media and Carlton, jointly own ONdigital, BSkyB’s main digital rival.
BSkyB’s Sky Digital has around 4.5m subscribers and ITV viewing figures are understood to have plunged in these homes because the channel has to be received independently of the satellite signal.
This is compounded by figures from Barb, the Broadcaster’s Audience Research Board, which indicate that ITV’s share of commercial impacts -- or the number of viewers staying tuned to the channel during commercial breaks -- is in decline. ITV’s commercial impacts have dropped from 67.5% in 1995 to 50.5% in 2000, while its multichannel rivals, including BSkyB and cable broadcaster NTL, have doubled their share of commercial impacts to 19.2%
ITV is also thought to be losing its share among ABC1s to the multichannel environment. During 2000, ITV’s share of this market fell from 53.7% to 49.8% while broadcasters such as NTL increased their share.