Commercial TV channels in the UK have experienced a strong 2016 so far, with average commercial TV viewing on a TV set increasing by 1 minute year-on-year (YoY) up to 2 hours and 24 minutes per day. In addition to this, commercial TV’s share of total TV viewing for the first 6 months of 2016 was 67.4%, up from 66% during the same period in 2015. This could be partly down to the moving of BBC3 to online only in February, leading to a dip in BBC viewing, with the younger audience encouragingly moving to ITV2 and E4 which have both experienced growth since that time.
It is investment in peak programmes, such as the traditional soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street, the soaring Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5 and the continued growth of Gogglebox on Channel 4 which is driving this increment in commercial TV. Further to commercial impacts being up, ad revenue has also seen a 3% increase in H1 2016 vs. 2015 showing that advertisers remain confident in TV as a channel for delivering their objectives.
All Response Media Viewpoint
The rise in commercial TV viewing shows that live TV remains a very engaging medium, even though there is now a vast amount of choice and freedom for the typical TV consumer, from catch up and on demand TV to watching shows on the go via a smartphone or tablet. Contrary to expectations, TV viewing increasing year-on-year shows that we are still able to reach our audiences through conventional TV spot advertising. Furthermore, with all-screen becoming more prominent in TV consumption, we continue to investigate this strategy to deliver extended reach further to traditional TV. TV growth will be something to monitor as we enter the second half 2016 to see if these trends continue during a traditionally busier period.
