Portfolio channels pay off for ITV and Five

The Weakest Link

• Increase image
• View all images

ITV and Five will be pleased to have seen their multichannel strategy pay dividends in the first six months of the year and offset declines in their terrestrial offerings.

From 1 January to 30 June, both broadcasters have seen their family of channels increase their all-hours share by more than 2% across all homes: ITV is up 2.8%; Five is up 2.2%.

ITV's strong performance was led by ITV4, up a huge 75% to a share of 0.77%, and ITV3, which has increased its share by 25.2% to a respectable 1.44%. ITV2 has consolidated its position as the UK's most popular digital channel with a 20.5% increase to just over a 2% share.

CITV is up 3.7% to 0.28% and the only fly in ITV's digital ointment is Men and Motors, down 54.5% to just 0.05%.

The multichannel gains have also outweighed the 1.5% decline of ITV1, which has seen its all-hours share fall to 18.95%. The channel had a slightly tougher time in peak (6pm to 10.30pm) where it has fallen by 4.8% to 23.63%.

Five's two digital offerings have offset the decline in the terrestrial channel. Converting Five Life to Fiver has resulted in a 58.1% uplift, with a share of 0.49% in the first six months. Five US also did well, rising 27.3% from 0.44% to 0.56%. The performance helped negate Five's terrestrial channel performance: it fell 3% across all hours to 5.13% and 2.8% in peaktime to achieve a 5.15% share.

While the BBC's multichannel offerings have also gained share, it hasn't been enough to make up for the declining terrestrials, meaning the corporation's overall portfolio fell 2.2% year on year to 32.71%.

BBC4 had a strong start to the year, up 31.3% to 0.42%. BBC3 saw its audience increase to 1.03%, a year-on-year rise of 15.7%. As both channels start at 7pm, their peaktime audience figures are considerably higher at 0.79% and 1.87% respectively.

But the two terrestrials had mixed fortunes. BBC2 lost 5.8% in peaktime, giving it an 8.53% share, but its all-hours performance has been worse - down 10.8% to 7.73% - after it lost Weakest Link (pictured, top) to BBC1.

BBC1 has done well in peaktime and its 1.0% rise in share to 23.85% is the only peaktime increase by a terrestrial, but across all hours the flagship channel is down 1.7% to 21.73%.

Channel 4's channel portfolio fell by 4.4% across all hours from 12% to 11.46%. But it wasn't all gloom - More 4 rose an impressive 46% to 0.92% and Film 4 added 10.1% to 0.87% this year.

However, these gains were undermined by a 7.7% decline in E4's audience from 1.56% to 1.44% and C4 sliding 8.7% from just over 9% in 2007 to 8.23% in all hours (including C4+1). The drop is not so severe across peaktime, but C4's share still fell 5.6% to 8.22% and its executives will be hoping Big Brother will help it pick up in the second half of the year.