Terrestrials 'to lose 13% of viewing' by switchover

[BGonaSTICK]

Terrestrial television channels are set to lose nearly 13% of their combined audience share by the 2012 digital switchover completion date, according to research commissioned by Broadcast magazine.

Media analyst DGA examined how digital take-up has affected the viewing shares of BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five in recent years. Their current collective share of 67.3% is set to fall to 58.7%, with multi-channel brands taking 41.3% of all viewing.

BBC Two is likely to suffer the biggest drop, from 8.9% to 7.3% by 2012. BBC One is expected to fall from 22.9% in 2006 to 20.3%, while ITV1 could drop from 20.1% to 17.8%. Channel 4 could be down by 14.5% to 8.2% while Five is predicted to fall from 5.8% to 5.1%.

Meanwhile, UK marketing trade body the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has released latest quarterly data showing a continuing decline in overall daily viewing, down from 3.42 hours at the end of Q3 2005 to 3.31 hours at the end of Q3 2006.

The IPA analysis puts the five terrestrial channels on a 64.6% audience share, down from 69.5% in Q3 2005, and 73.1% in Q3 2004. "The major channels continue to suffer from the inexorable growth of the non-terrestrial channels, which have now reached a share of 35%," said the IPA.