However, impacts for Five's digital channels, Fiver and Five USA, were up 4% collectively among 16 to 34s. But Five USA, which relaunched in February to replace Five US, suffered a 13% slide in 16 to 34 impacts year on year across January and February.
Richard Oliver, managing partner, investment, Universal McCann, said: "Five's digital offering is okay, but you don't get the sense there is the continual momentum and level of investment into the product like you do with ITV's or Channel 4's digital [TV] properties."
Jason Talley, Five controller of airtime, said: "We had a really strong February last year, especially in 16 to 34s, as we launched Neighbours and moved a lot of one-off programmes into that week. Some months are more geared towards certain demographics and lately our schedule has been more skewed around ABC1 adults, with shows such as Minder."
Talley added that he expected Five's performance in Q2 and Q3 to be stronger. "We will have more episodes of first-run US shows, which should boost the schedule - as we were hit quite hard last year [as the effects of the US Hollywood writers strike took hold]."
Meanwhile, ITV's share of commercial impacts in February was down by 3.5% year on year across all adults, down 8.5% among 16 to 34s. However, it was the only terrestrial to post an increase in impacts in any demographic - with a 1.3% share increase among ABC1 adults.
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