Audiences continue to watch fewer hours of television

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 14-Feb-02, 15:35

LONDON - Audiences continue to watch less television and when they are watching, they are tuning in to more non-terrestrial stations than ever before, according to the latest Trends in Television survey.

The survey, published by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, also shows that ITV's share of viewing has remained static, but that BBC1 has managed an increase -- helped by a strong performance over the Christmas period.

However, the survey reveals that ITV is doing well during the peak viewing period and with the 16- to 24-year-old age group. Channel 5's share of audience has not changed greatly, standing at 5.8% for the last quarter of 2001, compared with 5.6% for the same period in 2000.

The survey shows that the average number of hours spent watching TV daily has fallen from 3.67 in 2000 to 3.62 hours in 2001. Terrestrial television saw an even bigger decline, down from 2.99 hours per day on average in 2000, to 2.85 hours in 2001.

Conversely, satellite, cable and digital TV now claim around 40% of the average weekly audience, up from 31% only two years previously.

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