this threads getting pointless now-is this going to turn into another ee should be axed thread? We dont need another one. boring....

no it should not be axed I dont watch it but it shouldnt be axed because thousands love it

Even if ratings fall [as they will as all folk go digital] it will still pull in the best ratings for ITV so they will never end it. Infact I predict it going to four one hour episodes a week! ITV need to cash in on their biggest shows as ad rates fall year on year!

Doesn't that go for every business...that's what TV is and ITV is no different, the money just comes from a different place.

BBC are less likely to care about ratings than ITV

No way one hour episodes-

and why would ratings fall with digital-the whole country will be going digital?

or are you suggesting some wont want to so therefore wont have a tv?

ITV need to think that, they need to keep the falling advertising revenue coming in to keep going

People have more choice

Just check the rating now compared to a few years ago

same amont of people may tune in to watch soaps

You do??

No show could sustain that...I'm sorry. 4 days a week at 1hr would put too much stress on the soap from every angle. Storylines are already becoming used time and time again in all the soaps, sustaining a whole 8hrs of fresh new storylines continuously would be impossible.

Could you please explain why the ratings will fall, just because we are going digital. I am confused by why you think this.

weirdest thread ever. Of course it wont be axed, not only because it's been running for so long but because it's a great soap....

Much more choice

When we only had BBC1,2 & ITV (Cant remember before that) the audience was split between these 3 channels

Along comes Ch.4, this takes away a percentage of the audience from these channels
Five appears takes away another piece of the audience
etc
etc (with cable/analogue satelite)

We then get to digital, 200+ channels, each of these taking away a share of viewers from BBC, ITV etc

So BBC/ITV have gone from having the audience split between them to having to share the audience with over 200 channels nowadays

^ But most of the other channels you get when you recieve digital are:

a) specialist - so only a few people will watch them
b) no competition for the great soaps.

People who watch soaps are not just going to stop watching them because of other channels, unless they are the people that don't watch them that religiously anyway. Therefore, ratings probably won't suffer that much.

But they have suffered

Just going back 2 years, EE was getting over 12 million, Corrie was getting nearly 14 million as more people get digital tv, they have more choice and watch other things

I agree the ratings shouldnt suffer much more, as over 70% of the country has digital now, but in the last 10 years programmes have really gone down in ratings

As for specialist I wouldnt say that

BBC3, BBC4, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, E4, More4, Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Living etc are all entertainment channels (the viewers for these channels have to have come from somewhere)

^ There are specialist - do you have sky/other digital thing? If you do - go and look at some of the channels now and you will see what I mean.

The falling ratings over the past 2 years may not be to do with digital, as quite a few people already had it before then, but more to do with the content of the soaps themselves, and people no longer wanting to watch them.

I have Sky & Freeview, and yes there are plenty of specialist channels, there are also lots of entertainment channels

If there were 100 people

You give then analogue (5 channels) then these channels will get good ratings
You then give these same people the choice of hundreds of channels (including the first five), they are going to be viewing more than the five channels so the share of viewer will be more spread about

The content does play apart of it, but choce has the biggest impact

I hardly ever watch digital tv
anologue is much better

And how have you worked that one out?

because its all american (absolute crap) or shopping channels

The BBC's remit is not based on ratings, their income is guaranteed. So that statement is ludicrous. However saying they don't care about EE is ludicrous as well, it is their premium show on a weekday.

forget i said that mate