.......as is the unknown iplayer figure

ITV quarterly results were out yesterday and the pattern we have seen for a long time continues:

10 months to 31 October 2015:

ITV(1) SOCI - down 4%
ITV Family SOCI - down 3%

and yet:

9 months to 30 September 2015:

ITV Family advertising revenue - up 6%

And, significantly, advertising revenue is up more than the market - ie ITV's share of the advertising market is up, despite SOCI falling.

So, despite all we hear about ratings day in day out, ITV continues to perform very, very strongly - and whilst that is the case they have no incentive whatsoever to spend any more money on programming.

Now some might wonder "Ah, but aren't they storing up problems for the future?" Well maybe, maybe not - but the same thing could have been said at any time over the last few years - and yet the same ratings trends continue without any impact on the financial results.

The answer appears to be that ITV is still quite simply the only place to advertise if you want to get to the mass market. Whether X Factor gets 8m or 7m or 6m really just doesn't matter if all other commercial channels can only get audiences which are a fraction of ITV's.

So it appears that the strategy will remain exactly as it has been for some time - focus on the 4 key areas, ie:

Soaps
Big hitters - XF, BGT, IAC (+ TV to be added)
Sport - WC, EC, RWC, England internationals (+ 6N now added to partially offset loss of CL, FAC)
High profile drama

Ensure that those 4 areas continue to be head and shoulders above anything on any other commercial channel - which they are - and then the entire rest of the schedule is just filler to be done at minimum cost to keep the overall total programme budget flat.

And if the programme budget is held flat (or at least very close to flat) whilst advertising revenue rises then profits must rise - which is what has been happening now for many years (since they hit rock bottom in 2008).

NB. Advertising revenue growth will be weaker in Q4 of 2015 - forecast at 3% - but that is still growth.

http://www.itvplc.com/media/news/itv...ng-update-2015

The ratings are a month old and leave out the Saturday edition on October 3rd which had 9.27m and 9.47m after 28 days.

It's almost as if people from X Factor/ITV are sending this info out and being cute with the figures.

Anybody with a modicum of intelligence can spot what it's trying to do along with the omission of the Saturday Strictly rating.

You have to laugh really.

It begs the question why have the OR teams sent out info with only some of the ratings?


If the headline read 'X Factor beats Strictly Sunday results show but not Saturday performance show' it would be more accurate.

Very interesting stuff indeed, and quite clearly explains the on-screen strategy we've seen from ITV for years now. If they wanted to make a better fist of the ratings rat race, they have hundreds of millions of pounds to do it with. They simply choose not to.

For all the talk of the BBC's market impact, that's (one of) the much bigger issues in the British TV industry. ITV's dominance of the commercial space is such that rather than feeling compelled to invest in programmes, they can just keep a lid on content spend and flesh out their profit margins. If only we had a bit of genuine, commercial mass-audience competition, we might see some of that money get invested. It's why I'd love to see a Viacom-owned C5 make a big content push, but alas it seems very unlikely.

Yes, that's exactly right.

The British TV industry is interesting in the sense that there are 3 very large dominant players - ie BBC, ITV and Sky - but they get their revenue (or at least the overwhelming majority of it) from 3 completely different sources - ie licence fee, advertising and subscriptions.

So whilst they compete for audiences, programme rights, sports rights and talent etc they aren't actually competing for revenues - hence ITV being able to follow its existing strategy.

The only serious threat that could theoretically emerge to change this would be a huge increase in competition from C4 or C5 (eg privatisation of C4 coupled with big reduction of PSB commitments; big increase in C5 programming spend).

But the change would have to be massive - a bit of tinkering around the edges isn't going to have any material effect.

As an example I guess it would require something like C5 to sign up Ant & Dec + Cowell + Norton all exclusively (coupled with the rights to as much of their programming as possible) + significant major sport (ie stuff currently on BBC1 / ITV1) - ie something so massive that it would completely transform the landscape.

And, realistically, the above is not very likely to happen.

Michael McIntyre confirmed for Christmas Day on BBC1

It's going to pretty much be SOAH, Mrs Brown, and McIntyre up against the final Dowton.

No I think it will be Eastenders, Mrs Brown and michael McIntyre v Downton Abbey

Mightn't be as catchy?

Both Mrs Brown and Downton should consolidate massively. Could we see record levels added to the overnights - maybe 4 or even 5 million for the first time? Or will they both be repeated in the following days thus stopping that?

It wouldn't need the defensive headlines if it was performing well

Channel 5's stunning new natural history series Loch Lomond: A Year in the Wild started very strongly last night with 1.61m (7.6%) at 8pm.

BBC Two's MasterChef: The Professionals was another big success story on the night with 3.12m (14.6%) tuning in.

A doc that isn't Benefits related. Finally Channel 5 moving away into respectable programme making territory.

Speaking of which. Mark Gatiss is talking about Doctor Who ratings.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-...ke-off-is-over

The Great Pottery Throw Down increased its audience to 2.06m (9.8%) in week 2, virtually matching 24 Hours in A&E's 2.07m (9.8%) for C4.

That was a good factual programme. Glad it did well for Channel 5. More of this would be good for the channel.


That's a great rating for Masterchef. So many variations and they all do well.

He speaks a lot of sense in my opinion.

He does, almost as though he is being groomed as the new showrunner.

The standout multichannel performer of the night was the latest screening of Billy Elliot on BBC Four (0.72m/3.8%).

Anything for Mondays live at the apollo on bbc2 not reported on ds. Also interested in how pick me is doing (poor I imagine)

Thanks

I know Pottery Throwdown is hardly original and has some schoolboy innuendo. But to my shock I actually enjoy it! I feel ashamed!

Will pottery throw down become the next bake off?

I think GoggleBox will have helped bring in some extra viewers