Ratings Review: BARB Week Ending 07 October 2007 

21 October 2007 tbs.pm/47

A bit later than usual this week, because there are less obvious stories this week.

The main one however, is Virgin 1. In it’s first week of operation, V1 manages a credible 0.5 share / 13.8 weekly reach. This equates to just over 6.5 million viewers across the week. Ther timeshift version manages a 0.1 / 4.3, which is just over 2 million viewers across the week.

Compare this to FTN’s final week numbers which were 0.2 / 6.2, which is just under 3 million viewers across the week, plus a negligable share and 1.6 weekly reach, which is 759,000 viewers across the week, and you can see that initial indications for Virgin 1 look promising. More viewers in general have turned to the effectively rebranded FTN channel.

This does look like the first shots being fired in a new battle between Sky and Virgin Media, and the battleground could well be Freeview, as I mentioned previously in a post here at the MediaBlog about a month ago.

One interesting note this week on Timeshift channels. Just out of interest, here are the top 5.

E4 +1 – 0.6 / 13.3

Channel 4 +1 – 0.5 / 14.9

UKTV Gold +1 – 0.4 / 9.2

Living +1 – 0.4 / 7.9

ITV2 +1 – 0.3 / 8.8

It is very interesting to note that E4 has the most timeshift viewers, more than the most popular digital channel, ITV2.

Now, to the “Hall Of Shame”, once again, in no particular order…

Sky Travel Shop – 50,000

Anime Central – 82,000

Business Channel – 79,000

Community Channel – 106,000

Diva TV – 106,000

Fashion TV – 122,000

Film 24 – 130,000

Golf Channel – 153,000

Hollywood TV – 185,000

Legal TV – 140,000

Life One – 184,000

MusFlash – 51,000

MUTV – 45,000

Overseas Property – 69,000

Performance Channel – 162,000

Real Estate TV – 175,000

Rockworld TV – 70,000

Setanta Golf – 122,000

Simply TV – 33,000

The Baby Channel – 81,000

The Travel Channel +1 – 196,000

Wedding TV – 124,000

Wedding TV +1 – 123,000

XLeague.TV – 95,000

The interesting thing to note is that Baby TV, which was on the list last week, has come off the publically released list this week. Why I don’t know, but when channels choose not to release ratings info, it’s a sure fire sign of trouble. Baby TV announced on 8th October 2007 that Fox International Channels has acquired a “…major stake…” in the channel.

Newly launched Diva TV, from the team behind The Hallmark Channel, is new to the list, with a paltry 106,000 viewers. Despite airing programmes like The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Late Show with David Letterman, all the channel has so far managed to succeed in doing is pull in one of the lowest rated launches ever in the history of television. They say they are “…sassy, sexy and totally seductive…”, whilst in reality they are nothing of the sort.

A Transdiffusion Presentation

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Ian Beaumont Contact More by me

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Liverpool, Friday 29 March 2024