BBC News

Thought you might like to see the following re:BBC News in 2001 ...

BBC News 24 increased its audience by 30 per cent on the previous year. Breakfast, presented by Jeremy Bowen and Sophie Raworth has built on the success of its relaunch by increasing its audience by nearly 10 per cent.

'The public's desire to get the latest news when they want it is clearly reflected by BBC News 24's 30 per cent growth this year,' said Roger Mosey, head of BBC Television News. 'Following September 11 even our critics finally admitted that News 24 had come into its own, providing the most comprehensive round-the-clock coverage of reaction around the world.'

'I'm also extremely pleased that we've proved wrong the sceptics who said we'd weaken the news and lose audiences by moving our main bulletin to ten o'clock. It's a tribute to the talent and commitment of our teams that our news programmes remain the first choice for viewers throughout the day.'

The Six O'Clock News remains the UK's most watched bulletin. In its first full year the Ten O'Clock News has increased its audience share compared to the Nine O'Clock News and has increased its lead over ITV's News at Ten over the course of the year. Newsnight increased its audience to 1.2 million.

BBC regional news also continued to be the clear market leader in 2001. The main 6.30pm regional news is the most watched news slot on British television with 6.0 million viewers (1.5 million ahead of ITV's equivalent programmes at 6pm) and an average of 4.9 million watched the late regional bulletins at 10.25 pm, which were doubled in length last year.

Well done BBC News! Tha'ts excellent news! I always have and always will watch BBC News!http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tv.home/forum/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Have to say when I want the news I instinctivly switch to the BBC.

Well done to all concerned!

I agree, especially the remark about September 11th - the coverage was excellent. I'm not keen on East Midlands Today, but that's because nothing of merit or interest ever happens in Nottingham. Look North up in Middlesbrough (uni) is far better.

(I got into trouble with my mother on September 11th for not doing the dishes because I was watching News 24. Apparantly, washing a mug is more important than 4000 people dying.)

What about BBC World?????

BBC World isn't intended for UK reception - so there aren't going to be any ratings for it! And viewership of it in the UK by whatever means must be absolutely tiny - remember, most people in this country will never have heard of BBC World!

Yes, I know that, they must have some worldwide figures though!

But News 24 still isn't the most watched news channel, so I'm not sure why they are continually banging on about its audience figures.

The BBC's September 11th coverage was dire, ITN were by far the best and I think that conclusion was drawn by practically everyone in here except the BBC Brigade (Gary, itsrobert, Martin, et al).

Here's all the blurb from Sky:

BARB figures for the whole of 2001 (up to the end of November) confirm that, given the choice, far more viewers watch Sky News than either BBC News 24 or the ITN News channel.

In Sky digital homes - where like-for-like comparisons can be made - Sky News' viewing share over the year is 0.89% - almost three times that of BBC News 24 (0.31%) and over seven times that of the ITN News channel (0.12%).

This lead is most pronounced when major stories break –
- On October 7th, when Sky reporter Geoff Meade was the first broadcaster to break the news of the US bombings in Afghanistan, Sky News' daily reach was 4.35 million, compared to BBC News 24's 2.46 million and ITN News Channel's 0.79 million.
-On the 11th of September, when Sky News was the first British broadcaster to break news of the terrorist attacks on the US, over five million people in the UK alone watched Sky News' coverage – peaking at 985,000.
- During the whole General Election campaign, Sky News' viewing share in Sky digital homes was 0.76% – over three times that of BBC News 24 (0.23%) and far higher than the ITN News Channel (0.10%).

[ENDS]

I'm not sure who these critics are who've suddenly praised News 24. I know Mark Steel in The Inde was praising them, but that's because he critisises almost everything Sky do. Wanker.

On a different note, BBC News 24 have still left a little yellow stickingg out at the bottom on the right hand side plasma screen!

I've still got this theory that the ratings for channels (generally, not just news) are likely to be swayed hugely by their EPG positioning.

Take the usual comparison when BBC and ITV show coverage of the same event at the same time. BBC (almost) always win (football, Princess Diana, etc.) - obvously a lot of the ratings are down to coverage and whether there are adverts or not, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if people just turn their TV on, which by default is tuned to the first channel, BBC1, and leave it there.

After all, before ITV came to digital satellite its ratings in homes with a dish were down dramatically, because people, myself included, simply couldn't be bothered to press 3 or 4 buttons each time they wanted to switch to analogue, and also crucially because no EPG listings were available.

Likewise, look at the positionings in the Sky Digital EPG for news:

501 Sky News
(504 Bloomberg)
507 News 24
(508 BBC Parliament)
(510 CNBC)
(513 CNN)
(519 S4C)
525 ITN News Channel

I reckon there are a lot of people who think, right, I want to watch the news, and who frankly don't care whether they watch Sky or News 24, and just go to 501 by instinct.

ITN News Channel is in a lousy EPG position and I'm amazed it got figures as high as it did on September 11 given the huge coverage available elsewhere. It really ought to be at 509 - not sure how the EPG placings are decided and if 509 is reserved for something else.

In the internet positioning of links and adverts makes a huge difference to clickthrough rates, and I'm convinced the same is true of channels on digital TV.

William

When News 24 launched at 508, 507 and 509 are automatically reserved for further BBC 'News related' channels (i think)

Well, News 24 is No 1 in my household. It's on Channel 6 (after redesignating my channels)!