Ratings Review: BARB w/e 23/01/2005
Well, having read the latest BARB ratings, freely published on BARB website, some things immediately stand out.
First of all, Sky One is most definitely in trouble. For the second week in a row, it only achieves a 1.9 share, beaten by 2 other channels this week. Sky Sports 1 beats it with a 2.0 share, and ITV2 beats both of them with a 2.1 share, helped in no small part by American Idol gaining almost a million viewers.
In the battle of the News channels, BBC News 24 just holds the lead with 0.6 share to Sky News with a 0.5 share. Interestingly though, Sky Sports News beats both of them this week with a 0.7 share. Sky Sports News is one channel that has gained a lot of benefit from being on Freeview. Prior to its Freeview debut, it would average around 0.2. These days, it regularly equals or beats the top rating news channels.
Also of note this week, Hallmark's ressurgence continues, maintaining a 1.0 share again. Hallmark seems to have performed better since the talk of the channel's sale began. E4's ratings seem to have gone up as well since talk of them going to Freeview began. A 1.1 share this week is up on its recent average of 0.8. Eurosport 2 seems to have improved on the old ratings of Eurosport News. Eurosport News always used to get less than 0.1. But now Eurosport 2 actually manages to rate a 0.1 share, and with a lot of recent live coverage at weekends, there could yet be further improvement in those ratings.
