Do you actually know how much Sky paid for Mad Men?

I get the impression Sky Atlantic is another example of Sky spending money on style rather than subtance.

For years Sky would spend huge sums on money marketing themselves whilst their channel's content was mostly threadbare. Admittedly, they are spending more money on content now but its really only what they should have been doing 5 years ago given the cost to their subcribers and the money they make.



Have you jumped ship to Sky? Murdoch's cash too much to ignore?

How and where are Sky's ROI ratings reported? There's around 600k homes, so it's not a small number and of course their figures are not included in the BARB figures.

A thrilling finish in the football...



EDIT:

X Factor had pretty tough competition: Modern Family, Big Bng Theory, Survivor etc - much tougher than last night's Voice results show had, which makes the rating all the more disappointing. It got off to a great start this year but it's crashed in the last few weeks - obviously it's still huge, particularly for NBC, but the fact that there has been a very sharp decline in the last few weeks, and not all of that can be put down to DWTS. A few weeks ago it was ahead of Idol, and now it's a full point behind it (for both performances and results), which suggests that once the blind auditions end the show becomes less interesting for a significant number of viewers (more than the typical post-auditions drop for US talent shows). It'll be interesting to see if that pattern is broken over here - getting through the battles in one weekend should help as that's the weakest stage of the show. Ultimately though, whilst The Voice is still an amazing hit for NBC, the sharp drop of late will have raised a few eyebrows.

Agree with the rest of your post though as The Voice is still hugely boosting NBC. FOX really have had a rotten season - X Factor might have seemed disappointing at the time but compared to how just about everything else has gone this season it actually looks imna pretty good position - Idol is only getting about a point more in the demo than XF was getting at the same stage. If XF can repeat the second year increases it has seen in other territories (which is certainly possible) and Idol continues to decline (seems likely) FOX could find themselves in a tricky and intriguing position this time next year. Meanwhile, Alcatraz and especially Terra Nova tanking will be hugely disappointing for them, as will New Girl's collapse across the season. Glee and Idol plunging makes things look even worse and House ending (and with a whimper) is the icing on the turd. A major re-think is needed for next year.

I think they need to launch something new out of XF/Idol on Thursday and try again with a new comedy on Tuesday at 9pm, pushing New Girl back to 9:30pm and Raising Hope on the bench. Touch will probably get renewed and could be paired up with Bones on Monday, which should be a solid night at least (although Touch needs to stabilise fast). It might be worth them running hour long X Factor audition shows and running them 3 nights a week for 2-3 weeks to boost new shows rather than keeping it in 2 hour blocks too.

The Voice U.S's problem is there is no spark to the live show; I just watched Dancing with the Stars and The Voice back to back and enjoyed the former much more. The former's show was plodding, with the judges saying the same thing over and over. It basically needs a boot up the backside.

Production wise American Idol has one up on it; the audience seem livlier, the judges catch the attention more, Ryan Seacrest is more of a human then a puppet and for me the talent is stronger on Idol going on the lives. Blake and Christina's teams really under performed, mainly down to poor song choice.

It was just bland and I'm unsurprised that people tuned out of the results; it didn't really matter who was eliminated. In compariison, Dancing with the Stars was a close run thing so it was always going to hold up better.

They will probably be rested that week - no doubt to howls of protest from ITVistas who spend most of the year complaining about BBC1's "stale samey Sunday night line-up"...

Is it possible that a cut down 30 min CF could air 7-7.30? Surely they won't just slot the news in when that could air 5-5.30?

So if the wolf show does well for bbc one, then that would be bbc ones best week performance all year, surely???

In terms of the 9pm slots, then yes, I would think so. And I imagine the Wolves show will do just fine - the nature specials usually do.

Actually, BBC One does seem to be kicking back into gear now, after a fairly lacklustre month or more. With The Voice lighting a match on Saturdays and reliable big hitters like Silent Witness and The Apprentice back on the schedule (albeit trending down year-on-year, for various reasons), things are moving properly now. The Syndicate is looking in pretty good shape, too - one of the channel's better weekday drama launches of late, and ahead of Prisoners' Wives, the last new drama in the slot.

March really wasn't such a good month, when you look at it. It was low on drama, with Upstairs Downstairs coming in below expectations, especially towards the end of the run. Then you had Empire flopping and, for my money, way too much Masterchef crammed in. It took 15 prime 9pm slots over the the space of 9 weeks - which seems a lot for a show that, while strong in the demos, isn't exactly lighting up the overall numbers. It finished with an official series average of only 5.10m - 9% down on last year. Add in some lazy New Tricks repeats, plus the uninspiring form of EE and Holby, and there wasn't all that much to shout about for BBC One. At least until The Voice premiered.

Checking back over BARB, Upstairs Downstairs finished with an average of 6.12m - which doesn't seem that bad, though it would be mid-low 5's if you took the last three episodes in isolation. That probably makes a return unlikely, given the expense, media attention and general problems with production.

I'd be tempted to go with a 2 hour comedy block on Tuesdays in September. Probably putting New Girl in at 8.30pm and I'd just get rid of Raising Hope. Bones should keep its new Monday 8pm slot. X Factor goes 2 hours on Wednesdays (every week, no 90 minute shows) and 1 hour on Thursdays (every week, no 2 hour shows!). 2 new dramas (or maybe bring back Touch) for the Monday and Thursday 9pm hours.

Glee gets a few months to sort itself out and comes back midseason. I'd also consider launching a couple of weeks early to avoid the scheduling disaster brought on by the World Series last year.

As for X Factor US, I think they're maybe making the same mistake they made last year... they're dithering. In the past 2 months they've been linked with every big name around and they've let it rumble on long enough that one of the candidates died. Whatever they do now, it's probably going to be underwhelming.

I notice that, on Good Friday, ITV1 have replaced Loose Women with The Planet's Funniest Animals. Will anyone notice the difference?

Who says TV schedulers don't know what they're doing?

The Voice will air Saturday and Sunday on the weekend of April 21-22 according to The Sun. There may be a Sunday edition of BGT that weekend (in another pointless ITV spoiling operation).

TV Times now has Silent witness as 12 eps, also the BBC Pressoffice has SW new eps being on in the week starting 21st April which would be the 7th and 8th eps (4th story) so it really can't just be a six eps series which everyone seemed to be claiming when it started.

SW on the 22nd will obviously have The Voice as the lead in so might get big to record ratings. Or maybe not of course if its against BGT, but would ITV dare but BGT against both the Voice and SW..

WEDNESDAY ratings: The Apprentice climbed to a series high of 6.53m, as Chelsea’s victory over Benfica peaked with 7.1m.

Source: Jake Kanter

ITV4 IPL cricket averages 236k, 1.7%. Peaks @ 334k

The BBC will air Planet Earth Live simultaneously across the globe, airing here on BBC1 and around the world on BBC Knowledge, BBCHD and the BBC iPlayer - except in the US, who as we all know live in a different world to the rest of us.

http://www.televisual.com/news-detai..._nid-1450.html

Not sure when it'll air, though I'm assuming it'll be before the Olympics.

Why is The Apprentice low this year? I seem to recall it getting well into the 7m range last time out. Football presumably dented it but it should definitely clear 7m, maybe pushing 8m in the officials.

LOVE the sound of this, it it's anything as good as Frozen Planet was last year, it will be a joy.

Britain's Got Talent would do well against The Voice and Silent Witness. The thing is it would definitely be seen as a ratings ploy and one they couldn't put down to last minute scheduling forcing them to put the show on.

Wednesday 4th April Overnights
BBC One
13:45- Doctors: 1.57m (19.2%)
20:00- Waterloo Road: 4.44m (19.1%)
21:00- The Apprentice: 6.53m (26.35%)
* peak: 7.1m
22:35- The National Lottery Draws: 3.00m

BBC Two
19:00- The Fisherman’s Apprentice with Monty Halls: 1.4m (6.6%)
20:00- Our Food: 1.9m (8.4%)
21:00- Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice: 1.96m (7.9%)
22:30- Newsnight: 1.2m

ITV1
19:00- Emmerdale: 6.79m (33.1%) , +1: 193k (0.9%)
19:30- UEFA Champions League: 4.81m (20.64%) , +1: 37k (0.17%)
* peak: 7.14m (29.64%)

Channel 4
18:30- Hollyoaks: 1.09m (5.6%) , +1: 112k (0.5%)
20:00- Four Rooms: 1.20m (inc +1)
21:00- One Born Every Minute: 2.5m (10.1%) , +1: 483k (2.7%)
22:00- 10 O'Clock Live: 945k (inc +1)
22:55- Facejacker: 464k (inc +1)

Channel 5
13:45- Neighbours: 649k (7.9%)
17:30- Neighbours: 984k (6.2%)
18:00- Home and Away: 721k (4.0%)
20:00- Cowboy Traders: 1.4m (5.8%)
21:00- NCIS: 1.82m (7.3%) , +1: 120k (0.67%)

Ratings include HD and are tape-checked where necessary

Multichannel
5*
18:30- Home and Away: 493k (2.5%)

Dave (inc +1)
22:40- Qi: 394k

E4
18:30- The Big Bang Theory: 811k (inc +1)
19:00- Hollyoaks: 407k (2.0%)
20:00- Footloose: 313k (inc +1)

ITV4
14:45- Indian Premier League: 236k (1.7%)

Film4 (inc +1)
19:10- New In Town: 305k
21:00- He's Just Not That Into You: 272k

More4 (inc +1)
19:55- Grand Designs: 455k

Watch (inc +1)
20:00- Alcatraz: 164k

Yesterday (inc +1)
19:50- Last of the Summer Wine: 339k

Quite a bit higher than usual for Boris v Ken (+ others).

Yeah I can't see them airing BGT that night. I won't be surprised if Corrie turns up though, particularly as one of Vera or Lewis is due to return that night, so it might well be Corrie at 7:30 and Vera/Lewis at 8.

I think we might see a Sunday results show for The Voice from the following week (maybe 7:15-8 like Strictly). They're doing one in the US this year and it makes sense as it'd give Sundays a nice boost.

How does that compare to the 'proper' cricket on SS1 yesterday?

I suspect he just finds it as astonishing as I do that on here we appear to have many people who could get a Ph.D. on the subject of TV ratings and literally don't even have an elementary understanding of Sky's business model.

All of these posts about Sky wasting money on programming and yet no attempt at any actual analysis of what they are doing.

- What is the total budget of Sky Atlantic?
- What is Sky Atlantic's subscriber break-even point?
- What is the subscriber break-even point as a % of reach?

If I was going to post one stat it would be this:

Sky spends approx 3% of its total revenues on entertainment programming.

For every £1,000 of revenue received, the grand sum of £30 is spent in total on all programming on Sky 1 + Sky Living + Sky Atlantic + Sky Arts + Challenge + Pick + ......[whatever other channels I've forgotten]

Does it sound as if Sky are "losing money" on their entertainment programming?

Remember about 30% to 35% of subscribers don't take any premium channels - ie they only get entertainment programming. Obviously they won't make up 30% to 35% of revenue as their ARPU will be lower than average. But even so, the gross margin on "entertainment programming" must be massive (*1, *2).

*1. Even allowing for revenue attributable to other products.

*2. Premium subscribers also get value from entertainment programming.

...and that's for the repeat!! The frst run got 501k on Tuesday.

Watch is scoring high with Grimm and Alcatraz. This time last year that 164k overnight for a repeat would have made second place in the officials!!

Never watched Watch before its HD launch, must be helping viewing figures. Never appeared on my default EPG and now it's in fourth place.