Cops With Cameras got 2.33m (10.2%) inc HD.

But, overall ratings aren't falling over recent years, they are just being spread thinner over more channels. See here and you'll see a general trend towards higher viewing times for the more recent years:

http://www.barb.co.uk/graph/weeklyVi...mit=View+Graph

K

Seems to me ITV keep giving up whole chunks of the year, they don't bother during the summer because apparantly no on watches, they give up in December after the Xfactor until more or less early in the new year because so its told its bad for Advertising.

If they showed more good stuff all year round then more people would watch and they would get more advertisers wouldn't they even in the supposed post XFactor advertising desert which actually includes christmas and the post Christmas sales which in theory should be an advertisers dream.

ITV needs a clearout - of both its commissioning and scheduling teams.

Yes, I sort of agree. But these days TV companies seem to be ecstatic with figures of 5 million. Yet 5 million doesn't compare with the figures they had even 5 years ago, never mind the 25 million they enjoyed in the TV glory days. I struggle to find anything at all to watch on terrestrial TV these days. I've resorted to watching US imports, a lot of which is excellent, as British TV has lost the plot.

25 million are still enjoying TV every night although this is spread across 280+ channels rather than just 3.

Not strictly true.

The majority of people still turn to the main channels first

shocking figures for ITV1 this summer. Maybe they should be renamed S.H.I.T.V.. in the summer.

I'm sure ITV would love to fill the schedules with Downton Abbey - but they can't afford it. The budget is stretched extremely thinly as it is.

Again, a look at the BARB website for this week in 2006 doesn't show a vast difference in the top30 ratings (ITV1 seems about 5-10% lower but that could be explained by the BARB numbers not including ITV1HD).

Comparing the overall main channel stats for this week in 2006, we see:

BBC 1/2 is 6:46 c/w 6:53 in 2006
ITV1+1+HD is 3:33 c/w 3:33 in 2006
C4+1 is 1:40 c/w 2:19 in 2006
C5 is 1:10 c/w 1:17 in 2006

So, as a brief snapshot, only C4 has really suffered a major downturn over the last 5 years.

K

Oh, in that case everything is fine. Let's all settle back and enjoy an episode of Geordie Finishing School for Girls.

According to their latest results presentation, the network budget is £800 million, and Adam Crozier has promised to maintain it at that level in 2012.

TeeHee! I'm not arguing that the quality hasn't dropped over the last 5 years, only that the assumption that that means people are watching less telly automatically follows...

K

There's been some major changes to the Channel 5 schedule for Week 34 in the finals.

Celebrity Big Brother now airs at 10pm Sunday-Thursday. The only exceptions are eviction nights on Fridays (9pm-10pm all in one programme) and Saturdays (9:15pm week 1, future weeks time will vary)

The Beat Goes On must be absolutely terrible because it's gone straight to an 11pm timeslot.

Full Channel 5 Schedule for first full week of Celebrity Big Brother.

Please note that there may still be rebills on Saturday due to other channels moving their peak junctions

Saturday 20th August
19:55 Police Interceptors: Special Edition
20:20 NCIS (Repeat)
21:15 Celebrity Big Brother
22:15 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (New Episode)
23:10 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Repeat)

Sunday 21st August
19:55 Movie: 10,000 BC (2008)
22:00 Celebrity Big Brother
23:00 Movie: Stuck on You (2003)

Monday 22nd August
20:00 Ultimate Police Interceptors
21:00 The Truth About Cheryl Cole (New)
22:00 Celebrity Big Brother
23:00 Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side
00:00 Grey's Anatomy (New Season)

Tuesday 23rd August
20:00 The Great Train Robber's Secret Tapes: Revealed (New)
21:00 CSI: Miami
22:00 Celebrity Big Brother
23:00 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Repeat)

Wednesday 24th August
20:00 Emergency Bikers (New Series)
21:00 Extraordinary People (New Series)
22:00 Celebrity Big Brother
23:00 The Beat Goes On (New Series)

Thursday 25th August
20:00 Croc Man
21:00 New Cowboy Builders
22:00 Celebrity Big Brother
23:00 Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side

Friday 26th August
20:00 The Gadget Show
21:00 Celebrity Big Brother: Live Eviction
22:00 The Bachelor
23:05 Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side

Yeah, I totally agreed with your point regarding audience figures. My argument is that the terrestrial stations don't try hard enough to win those viewers back.

I'd love to watch BBC or ITV but I haven't for several years because I can't find a single thing I'd like to watch.

Thanks Dancc. I think having just one 1-hr eviction show is a good idea as in recent years, the later 22.30 eviction shows used to rate quite low. It also means the evictions will actually be properly live, whereas in the last few years it was on a 20-minute tape-delay and the evictees name had been leaked onto websites. Do you know how many weeks The Bachelor is going to be on for? I guess they want to give it the best shot possible by placing it after the BB eviction show, but from what people have said who have seen the advanced previews of the show, the reaction hasn't been great so it could potentially be losing viewers throughout the season. The scheduling for Bit On The Side in terms of channel is quite inconsistent, I wonder why they have it on C5 on those particular nights but not any of the other nights? The provisional schedules seemed to suggest it would air on 5* on nights where BB would air at 10pm but obviously that's now changed and there's no clear pattern.

Yeah, there's no clear pattern now with the spinoff show. It's down for the full 7 days, even Sunday, airing on 5* on the days it's not on Channel 5. Clearly this is their way of trying to boost 5* through Big Brother, but I must admit with no clear pattern it could get confusing. At least the timeslot - 11pm - is consistent each night. (except Saturday)

I hadn't heard about The Bachelor's negative press reception until now. That's a shame because the idea of scheduling it after CBB seemed like a good one. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes because the critics don't always get it right and the programme has run for many years successfully in the U.S. It's a 10 week run according to Channel 5 press.

Sorry to mention it again, but no viewing after seven days of transmission is included in BARBs figures. With nearly 50% of homes having PVRs, there must be a lot of stuff being watched from weeks and months ago.

This week we've been watching all six episodes of Martina Cole's - The Runaway, which we recorded in March!!

Plus of course, none of the on demand/catch up viewing is included.

I don't think anyone's disputing that this happens - the question is how on earth you measure it.

The broadcasters adding in their online or on-demand data will obviously become more important over time, but I don't know what else you think should happen. BARB already consolidate data after a week. Do you want it re-consolidated after two weeks? A month? Six months? Where on earth do you stop?

Ultimately, the week-after consolidation (especially where broadcasters add on their extra viewings on iPlayer, Anytime, or whatever other platforms) is more than enough to be getting on with in analysing the success - or otherwise - of a programme.

Incorrect, any on demand or catchup viewing to programmes that have been broadcast in the last 7 days IS including in BARB. So for instance, anyone watching Coronation St (braodcast in the last 7 days) on Virgin VOD will be included, likewise someone watching Torchwood (from last week) on iPlayer on the PS3.

You are right about the +7 days viewing however. BARB is looking to the future ways of reporting this.

http://www.barb.co.uk/news/bulletins?_s=4

Bit On The Side should air on Channel 5 for the first few days for the exposure, moving to 5* on Monday 22nd and airing on Channel 5 after each live show. Otherwise the ratings are just going to fall and fall, spin off shows have a limited audience once the novelty of it being back wears off and by the end I predict it will get fairly similar numbers no matter what channel it airs on.

I stand corrected, didn't realise that.

Say a BARB family is on holiday and watching on iPlayer using a hotel's wifi, how would the data be collected?

It wouldn't, at the moment it only measures 'in home' television viewing.

Peak ratings don't really say much about the duration of viewing. While the numbers watching might have barely reduced we all know that the amount of TV we watch has severely reduced.

And the enjoyment of that reduced amount is also reduced.

It also has to be said that the ratings predictions cannot be verified, unlike a general election where there is something to back up the prediction (the actual result)

With tv ratings it's a belief system. No matter what BARB claim they cannot prove it in a scientific manner.

Are confidence intervals not 'scientific' enough for you? It's a sample survey so it's never going to be a census, nor will that ever be the case.