Ratings Focus: The upside of airing low-rating superdocs

The Qur'an

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Feature-length documentaries are unlikely to bring in high ratings but they can benefit broadcasters in other areas.

Getting viewers to commit to watching a two-hour programme like Channel 4's recent The Qur'an can be a daunting task, but such shows add to a channel's gravitas and often attract upmarket viewers.

C4's lengthy documentary by Anthony Thomas, which examined Islam's holy book, on Monday (14 July) attracted a steady 1 million viewers/4.6% share from 8pm with the programme peaking with 1.2 million for half an hour at 8.45pm. A further 142,000 watched it on the timeshifted offering C4+1.

While the documentary was behind the channel's slot average this year of 1.5 million/6.3%, it did attract an upmarket audience. Of all those watching the programme 57.3% were from the
ABC1 demographic. Younger viewers weren't so taken with the show - those aged between 16 and 34 only made up 18.9% of its total audience.

At the time The Qur'an was on air the only terrestrial channel to have fewer viewers was Five. The Gadget Show at 8pm had 983,000/4.6% for an hour which was followed by Banged Up at 9pm with 885,000/3.9%.

C4 also cleared a large chunk of its peaktime schedule in February for The Day of Kamikaze. The 95-minute programme, looking at Japanese suicide pilots during the Second World War, averaged 2.2 million/9.5% in a 9pm slot. The show attracted a profile share of 45.3% for ABC1 viewers.

Earlier this month BBC2 marked the 60th anniversary of the creation of the NHS with a one-off special. The 80-minute The NHS: a Difficult Beginning  went out at 8.30pm on 5 July, attracting an average of 1.5 million/7.6%. It lost out to more populist fare such as C4's Big Brother and ITV1's Who Dares Sings by some margin, but almost 60% of the show's audience was from the ABC1 demographic.

Even the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, ITV1, has made the odd foray into the area. Madeleine, One Year On: Campaign for Change took a large bite out of the channel's peaktime schedule on 30 April. The two-hour current affairs programme carried 3.5 million/14.4% from 8pm. Upmarket viewers accounted for 34.3% of the show's audience.

Such lengthy documentaries usually have little appeal for younger viewers with most struggling to make much of an impact with that age group. One exception was C4's The World's Hairiest Person and Me. It averaged a modest audience of 1.7 million/9.9% on 3 June at 10pm, but 37.5% of those watching fell into the 16 to 34 age group.