The common consensus is that viewers are now their own schedulers and viewing live is a thing of the past. But while those further down the EPG are benefiting significantly, the terrestrials continue to draw big live crowds.
I am often told that scheduling is a thing of the past. I usually contemplate my mortgage and launch into a stout defence.
Few things are singularly definitive as the technological race accelerates putting today’s truth in to tomorrow’s remaindered bin, but one thing seems reasonably sure; viewers love the live stuff, appreciate scheduled events and use the record button to navigate their way around it all.
Eight out of the top ten recording chart this week are BBC1 programmes. Of those three were directly up against I’m A Celebrity, two against The X Factor while EastEnders on 25 November had an hour-long Emmerdale to negotiate.
The legitimate argument goes that those recorded programmes could have been on at any time. That’s true enough, but it rather ignores the 6m who watched Merlin live or the 5m who tuned in to Garrow’s Law, not forgetting the 9m who watched Downton Abbey.
It’s harder now - and it was never especially easy - to get viewers to a prescribed time on a specific day but with skill, judgement and a bit of luck scheduled broadcast TV can still claim to be “the daddy”.
Having said all that, significant gains can be made on consolidated ratings especially further down the EPG.
Living’s Nikita on 25 November saw an increase of nearly 80% on its live figure raising it from 282,000 to 507,000. With the repeat showing gathering 143,000, a total of 650,000 is a great result.
And talking of raising, Sky1’s new US comedy Raising Hope is getting some traction. Its live figure of 208,000 on 25 November was lower than Sky’s other great US sitcom Modern Family, which managed 229,000. But on recording it zoomed past with a final score of 433,000 to Modern Family’s 319,000.
In addition, E4’s Misfits leapt to 1.4m, with 263,000 recording the 25 November episode.
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