Despite dipping to 26.3% from 26.4% last time, BBC1 retained its lead over its commercial rival for the nine months to September 30.
ITV1 saw its share of the TV audience drop to 24.3% from 24.6% for the first six months of the year, despite a revamp of its on-air identity and a rebranding.
Channel 4 rose to 10% of TV audience share, up by 0.9% from last time, as its digital offshoot E4 retained its 0.9% share. The channel recently announced it is to cut 200 jobs and that it is to axe long-running soap 'Brookside' in an effort to cut costs and boost its programming budget.
Sky One lost share, falling to 2% from 2.1% in August. Five and BBC2 remained static, with Five scoring an audience share of 6.4% while BBC2 had a share of 11.3%.
The battle between the 24-hour news stations remained neck-and-neck with BBC News 24 and Sky News on level pegging at 0.3% each. The BBC has been told by the government in a yet-to-be-published report that News 24 must compete more heavily with rival Sky and be first to break stories.
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