IPA publishes Q3 2009 Trends in UK Television Report

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

The latest Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Trends in Television Report published today covering Q3 2009 shows that average daily viewing figures stand at 3.54 hours. This compares to the same levels for Q3 2008, and 3.56 hours for Q2 2009.

Highlights of the report include:

  • ITV, Channel 4 and five are slightly down in audience share for this quarter (by 1.3%, 0.5% and 0.1% respectively), whilst the non-terrestrial channels continue to grow (up by 1.3% for Q3 and 3.2% y-o-y).
  • There is a continued growth of digital penetration, which now stands at 90.1% of all homes.
  • Homes relying solely on analogue terrestrial signals are now below 10% for the first time (at 9.3%).
  • All terrestrial channels, with the exception of BBC2 are losing patronage* whilst the non-terrestrial channels growth has stabilised for the moment.

Said Lynne Robinson, “This is another good quarter for television – we can expect the move to digital to be accelerated even more next quarter after the digital switchover in the Granada region.”

UK TV Households at October 1, 2009:

                                     Digital
--------------------------------------------       Total
  Satellite        Cable  Terrestrial  Total  Households
-----------  -----------  -----------  -----  ----------
       9966         3543        15562  23542       26127

Source: IPA

*Patronage is defined as the percentage of the population tuning to a channel for at least three minutes during the week.

More: Summary and full report