Viewers flock to news channels after Paris attacks

As the full horror of the attacks began to emerge, viewers switched over to the 24-hour news channels on Friday evening to keep up with events as they developed in the French capital.

BBC News’ audience peaked with 1.13m (8.9%) over the five minutes from 11.15pm, while Sky News hit a high 15 minutes later, when 1.12m (10%) were watching the channel.

BBC News averaged 169,400 (2%) from 2am Friday morning to 2am on Saturday, which was well above the station’s usual audience of 89,500 (1.1%) for this time over the past year.

Sky News experienced a similar uplift over the same period. Its average of 158,700 (1.9%) was 133% up on its usual crowd of 68,000 (0.8%).

The events may well have had an impact on Children In Need, which in the absence of Terry Wogan averaged 7.7m (35.8%) during the main portion of its broadcast from 7.30pm to 10pm.

This was the main show’s lowest audience in at least nine years and was 600,000 viewers down on last year’s audience of 8.3m (35.9%).

The event peaked at 9pm with 8.8m (39.7%).

On Saturday, BBC News at 6pm drew 6.7m (34.5%) – the bulletin’s biggest audience since February 2014. The 10pm bulletin then managed 4.2m (23.5%), while ITV’s 9.45pm show was watched by 4.3m (22.5%).

Over on BBC2 on Saturday, a Newsnight special was seen by 1.36m (6%) from 8pm to 8.30pm, the show’s biggest audience since June 2009. Channel 4 News drew 732,000 (3.7%) over the 6pm hour.