During the first quarter of 2003, ITV's 16 franchises, including GMTV, took an audience share of 25.5%, up from 24.3% in the last quarter of 2002. BBC One's share of the audience was 26.7% in the first quarter of the year, up from 26.4% in the previous period.
The story between the news channels was a different matter, with Sky News extending its lead over BBC News 24, boosted by coverage of the war on Iraq.
Sky News' share was 0.6%, up from 0.4% last quarter, while BBC News 24's was 0.4%, up from 0.3%. Sky News was the most popular news channel during the war on Iraq, which began on March 21. The ITV News Channel scored a 0.1% share, which was flat on last time.
Channel 4 saw its share fall to 9.6% from 9.8% last time, while Five was up to 6.4% from 6.3% at the end of the last year.
Among the entertainment channels for the 16- to 34-year-old audience, Sky One saw its share fall to 0.6% from 0.8%, while E4 retained its 0.8% share. It is not yet clear what effect the launch of BBC Three will have on its two commercial rivals, as it only launched in February.
Although BBC Three has taken some criticism, it will have scored highly with its 'EastEnders Revealed' shows and advance episodes of hit US drama '24'.
During the time it aired, BBC Three had a share of 0.1% and its precursor BBC Choice had a share of 0.3%, totalling 0.3%. This is flat on the previous quarter when BBC Choice had a share of 0.3%.
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