Originally Posted by Brekkie:
“It may not be as official as in the States and the US, but there is no doubt summer here is just as much a non-ratings period as it is elsewhere - and ITV have hardly gone into complete shutdown. It might not be rating but they've put more effort into summer Saturdays than in recent years, they've got new drama on Sundays and the highest rated shows - the soaps - continue as normal.
Of course ITV and any other commercial broadcaster are wise to play to their strengths, focusing efforts on the more lucrative times of year and just basically getting through the lulls. It if of course a Catch 22 situation - people won't watch if there is nothing too watch, but if a few weeks with no weeknight drama is the price to pay for more higher quality drama the rest of the year then so be it.”
I was basically going to post the same thing, really. Officially there might not be a "non-ratings period" label but advertising rates and demand at this time of the year are well down compared to other times of the year. Therefore ITV adjust their programming lineup to suit the advertiser's demands. C4 and C5 though don't seem too affected by it as they try and take advantage of this "down period" when ITV rates poorly, but they then end up having weaker periods at other times of the year: Channel 4 for example have been weak in October/November for a number of years - ironically that's a time of the year when advertising rates are among their highest.
As you say, it's a Catch 22 situation: they could move big shows like Doc Martin/dramas/I'm a Celebrity to the summer which would rate really well - indeed the last show in that list started out as a "summer" show - but from their POV what's the point when these shows can command a bigger audience in the Autumn and also at a time when advertising rates are higher (i.e. one viewer in Autumn could = £7 whereas in the summer it'd be £5). They basically put their best shows in the best possible slots - obviously that means they end up with really good peak-periods but also very low troughs during the summer, whereas other channels like BBC1 are much more stable throughout the year.
The situation always seems worse in non-World Cup/Euro years though and actually looking at the ITV1 ratings in the 9pm slot, it really is not too dissimilar to how they've done in 2007 and 2009 - the 9pm slot this June is set to average ~3.6m, compared to 3.5m (June 2009) and 3.2m (June 2007) - all those figures excluding BGT ratings for obvious reasons. I don't disagree with what Dancc said though about just because it's summer doesn't mean people won't watch things and shows still are, quite easily, capable of 5m+. But clearly it doesn't look like they'll be changing the strategy they've been using for many years anytime soon - this week's 9pm lineup would've cost them less than £1m which is very low so they're obviously just trying to get by at the moment with a low-rated but profitable lineup, whereas in the Autumn they'll be spending £3m+ for the weeknight 9pm slot some weeks and in turn they'll be rewarded with big ratings (generally the more £ you spend, the higher ratings you get- drama and high-end light entertainment being major ratings pullers but also most expensive genres).
I am surprised though that they didn't commission more formatted reality show competitions for weeknights in the summer - the type which is all pre-recorded, so relatively cheap to make and usually quite popular with 16-34s: stuff like a weekly Hell's Kitchen/71 Degrees North - that sort of show, as Fincham was saying last year that they were thinking of doing those sorts of shows this summer to take advantage of no BB on air (in June and July anyway). Surely those sorts of shows would've rated better than stuff like My Choir Rocks and Baby Hospital, although admittedly they'd have cost a little more. I suppose they do have that standup competition coming up which fits that criteria, although I don't expect much from it if it's pitched against Torchwood.
? Not that I don't believe you, but I thought it would've been the week before as Tuesday during that week there will be an England v Wales football match and they'd have to take a night off then which isn't ideal in terms of gaining momentum for a brand-new TV show.
