Yep! Of course. Thanks for clarifying. A 25m reach is pretty damn attractive I'd say, especially with the demos BB gets.

I hope it does well, it's a fun social experiment on the right channel which doesn't try and be anything it's not. Obviously all depends on the housemates, it would be nice if - for a change - the casting is more diverse and we have a good mix of people from various walks of life, and crucially not just in their 20s but their 30s and 40s.

Channel 5 have grown the show's audience since it started there which is testament to the channel giving at least slightly more of a shit than Channel 4 did (personally I think they do a ten times better job). It's on the best channel for it IMO and is a nice solid performer for them and will be a nice stable alternative to World Cap mania in the scheduling this year.

Just to remind that the Andy Murray semi final against Nadal has been promoted to ITV tomorrow at 15:00 so no Dickinson Real Deal and The Chase.

Yeah, the demos can get overlooked with people so quick to point out it's not the force it once was in Total People.


I've read positive things on that front but we shall wait and see. Agreed it works better when it's more of a mix. BB12 which was exclusively under 30's was easily the weakest C5 series.


I agree. I will be tuning into both BB and the World Cup so a busy TV period for me.

OH NO how will we cope without the 'orange' one !!!

Its getting people ready for World Cup.

Does mean we can have the ITV version of 'Wimbledon' and discuss what happens if the Regional News and ITV News get pushed back....

I watched it. I saw every edition but I can't remember anything about it now. I remember thinking the Friday night summer slot didn't suggest there was much enthusiasm for the programme.

Looking at that article got me clinking on links to other late 1990s articles including one about Noel leaving the BBC in August 1999. One of them mentioned a daytime version of Telly Addicts. I can't remember if that actually happened.

Britain's Got Talent - Consolidated Ratings (2014)
Auditions 1 - 12/04 - 11.84m (45.4%) / 12.40m (47.5%)
Auditions 2 - 19/04 - 9.94m (43.7%) / 11.04m (48.5%)
Auditions 3 - 26/04 - 10.38m (44.6%) / 11.32m (48.6%)
Auditions 4 - 03/05 - 10.09m (44.3%) / 10.88m (47.7%)
Auditions 5 - 10/05 - 10.17m (44.1%) / 10.92m (47.4%)
Auditions 6 - 17/05 - 10.12m (41.5%) / 10.64m (43.6%)
Auditions 7 - 25/05 - 9.19m (41.5%) / 9.92m (44.8%)

Live Show 1 - 26/05 - 10.46m (40.6%) / 10.94m (42.5%) and 8.57m (32.9%) / 8.87m (34.1%) [Corrie: 9.64m (35.1%) / 10.03m (36.5%)]
Live Show 2 - 27/05 - 8.88m (35.8%) / 9.31m (37.6%) and 6.96m (24.8%) / 7.54m (26.8%) [Corrie: 9.04m (29.6%) / 10.04m (32.9%)]
Live Show 3 - 28/05 - 9.08m (37.3%) / 9.41m (38.7%) and 7.17m (27.5%) / 7.55m (28.9%) [Corrie: 9.62m (34.3%) / 10.17m (36.2%)]

Thanks for the figs DMN. Corrie over the 10m mark inc +1 in the officials and rose from Mon-Wed! Fantastic.

Depends how the match goes but I think the local news will be shorten to 10 mins.

Rather annoying Channel 5 HD is Sky only. Why is this?

An article from 2011 when Channel 5 pulled its application: 'Channel 5 has ditched plans to launch a high-definition channel on Freeview for the second time in less than two years, after being unable to resolve "issues of commercial importance".'

They supposedly said that year: "We will be applying afresh for DTT [Freeview] capacity when it is next advertised by Ofcom. We hope this will take place in the near future."

With new HD channels supposedly coming this year perhaps C5 could sort out these issues and match the main players. "ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 had no statement at this time as to whether they intended to take advantage of Ofcom's move."

I wont hold my breath.

Hmm. Well according to that article there's plenty of new slots now so why not?

It's time Channel 5, as well as E4, and ITV2, 3 and 4 went HD on Freeview IMO.

Dancc can probably explain the exact position, but I think they have a contract with Sky, although visiting my sister yesterday, she was watching Neighbours on 5HD, on Virgin.

The Viacom deal may mean a change in policy.

I would be very interested to see the ratings for tomorrow afternoon, given Pointless is on BBC2 and there's no Chase at all. Be a very interesting three way battle at 5pm wth Pointless, the D-Day coverage and the French Open.

Then of course on Saturday there's sport on BBC1, BBC2, ITV and C4 at once with the rugby league, the F1, the tennis and the Derby. Brilliant! Although, having seen the trailer earlier on, Channel Four are again ludicrously trailing "The Investec Derby, Tomorrow 1.10". No, that is not the Derby, that is the start of the Derby meeting, and I think it's ridiculous to trail it like that. I know racing fans know when it is but the casual audience doesn't, and it's the casual audience they're trying to attract. What is wrong with saying "Meeting starts tomorrow 1.10, the race Saturday 4pm"? I know they would rather we watched the whole thing but the saying the Derby is tomorrow when it isn't is idiotic. It's like the Beeb trailing the Canadian Grand Prix and saying it's tomorrow at three because that's when the first practice session's on. Ridiculous.


No it didn't, though Unique did do a spin-off version for Challenge, and of course Noel did the DVD game a few years later, we had it and it started with him saying "We're back!", as if it was a continuiation. Course, the final series of Telly Addicts did so badly they took the opportunity to "lose" it around the 1998 World Cup, flinging the remaining episodes in any available slot in the hope people would forget about it. Actually the Christmas special to launch that dreadful revamp is on YouTube, I can't bear to watch the whole thing but the celebrities include Ant and Dec, Shane Richie and Claudia Winkleman - most of the people who have filled Noel's slot on Saturday night over the past year.


Channel 5 HD has always been on Virgin, it's ITV who used to have a contract with Sky which is why ITV2, 3 and 4 used to only be in HD on Sky (but that's now ended so they're on Virgin too). I seem to recall the last time we discussed this it was partly because C5 didn't have enough HD stuff to qualify for it?

Hi Chris.

At the very least I expect it's something which Viacom will look at.

And even as someone who watches an above average amount of C5 programming I'd have to question how much Sky can be benefiting from its exclusively paywalled status. I doubt it can be having much impact on subscriptions personally.

It makes a lot more sense for C5 HD to be available free-to-air like all the other major networks, and I think increasingly most viewers will come to expect this and the fact it's not there will look odd. As has been mentioned they've twice put plans in motion only to pull out relatively last minute.

The official line is still that they intend to join Freeview HD in the future with no timeframe on when that might be, but their dealings with Sky under the previous owner do not support these claims.

Almost everything new on the channel these days is shown in HD. This certainly wouldn't be an issue now, it might have been when they applied first time around, but not the second and now they are more than ready.

BB could be affected by the World Cup, but I think a ball park figure of 1.5 million average would suit Channel 5. The golden era of 10 years ago is unlikely to return, but there does seem to be 1.5-2.5 million people that are prepared to watch both versions and it still has a very big online fan base. Remember it is Channel 5's most successful home grown show and gives it a higher profile than the days when they would have shown some martial arts B movie at 9.00.

The thing about Big Brother is that sometimes how it starts doesn't matter. All it takes is one moment to get people talking and tuning in.

I think this is what probably gets it attention, although in recent years it's mostly been the Daily Star that bigs it up and this is the lowest selling of the tabloids. I reckon now BB is in a comfort zone on a less high profile channel and a jump to 2 million is big news for them.

That is true. When it launched 600,000 down on the previous year this time last year, I don't think anybody on this thread expected it to go on to outrate that series comfortably. The key last year was a very loyal audience nightly and key events did produce nice peaks.

Just to add that, until last October, Channel 5 HD was free-to-view on Sky, needing a viewing card but not a subscription. Channel 5 did a deal with Sky which meant the HD channel required a subscription, i.e. it went behind a paywall. It's now part of the 'Family' pack.

A few inspired tasks and who knows. Also needs a good mix of contestants. That's always the way with reality shows though.

Overnight primetime shares (18:00-22:30), week ending 1 June
(BGT week, 2013 equivalent week - also BGT week - in brackets)

BBC One: 19.58% (19.62%)
BBC Two: 6.66% (7.42%)
ITV: 27.62% (28.56%) inc +1
Channel 4: 5.18% (5.31%) inc +1
Channel 5: 3.15% (3.21%) inc +1
Others: 37.81% (35.88%) inc +1

Source: Broadcast magazine

Overnight daytime shares (09:30-18:00), week ending 1 June

BBC One: 18.80%
BBC Two: 3.82%
ITV: 9.48% inc +1
Channel 4: 5.37% inc +1
Channel 5: 4.30% inc +1
Others: 58.23% inc +1

Source: Broadcast magazine

That looks really low for ITV.