Channel 4's share of impacts among all adults and among ABC1 adults plummeted by 18.1% and 21.2% respectively, year on year. Five's share of impacts among the two groups fell by 7% and 3.2% year on year.
Overall, ITV1's share of commercial impacts increased from 30.2% in April to 31.9% in May, while Channel 4's share fell from 12.6% in April to 11.5%, and Five's from 9.1% to 8.5%.
Channel 4 audience driver Big Brother launched on 5 June to avoid a ratings battle with ITV1's Britain's Got Talent, which ran throughout May. Last year, Big Brother launched in May, which is thought to have contributed to the 18.1% decline in the channel's share of adult impacts.
Factoring in C4's time-shifted channel, Channel 4+1, its share of all-adult commercial impacts was 12.4%, down from 14.1% in May 2007.
Richard Oliver, Universal McCann managing partner, said that adding Channel 4+1 "reduces the decline to merely single digit proportions, but it's still not good".
Agency TV buyers said audiences for programmes such as Desperate Housewives and Property Ladder have fallen year on year, with several blaming "uninspiring" recommissions such as the F Word and 10 Years Younger.
Meanwhile, following a 5% year-on-year decline in both adult impacts and ABC1s in April, ITV1's share of all-adult impacts rose in May by 1.7%. In contrast to declines in ABC1 impacts for Channel 4 and Five, ITV1 increased its share of ABC1 impacts by 2%.
Throughout May, Britain's Got Talent pulled in around 9 million viewers for ITV1, while the final result on 30 May saw over 13 million tune in.
Caroline Binfield, business director for TV Arena BLM, said Channel 4 suffered from a strong schedule on rivals ITV and BBC. "Britain's Got Talent did really well, pulling in viewers every night, while The Apprentice also affected C4. Channel 4 has not really pulled anything out of the bag and airs property and make-over stuff but is struggling to find new formats. They aren't bringing in any new US imports either though House always performs well."
.jpg)
.jpg)