BBC 3 loss is Commercial TV's gain!

TV viewing is a fickle business! The BBC have been brilliant over the Olympics but the big news in our business today is that in the first half of this year the BBC have lost ground in significant parts of their audience to commercial TV, primarily because of the closure of BBC3.

A strategic mistake in my opinion that I have written about before. This error of judgement has meant the BBC has lost ground in the battle for key youth audience which should be a real worry for the licence payers and the Government. This has been underlined by the reconciled TV viewing figures for the first 6 months of 2016 that are out today and they make important reading for anyone spending on TV advertising.

According to new numbers from Thinkbox the marketing body of commercial TV, viewing in the UK increased to 2 hours, 24 minutes a day in the first half of 2016, an increase of one minute on the same period last year, and seven minutes more than a decade ago.

This is good news for those of us that make our living from marketing through TV in its various formats - bad news for the BBC and interestingly reflects the gradual trend away from the BBC that we have seen in the radio market especially among younger audiences.

Commercial TV channels in the UK "enjoyed a strong beginning" to 2016, as they increased their share of total TV viewing to 67.4%, up from 66% in the first half of 2015. When non-commercial BBC channels were included in the total TV viewing figures, British viewers watched 3 hours, 34 minutes of TV a day from January to June. This was actually a slight decrease overall of two minutes a day compared to the same period last year using the BARB standard TV measurement.

Interestingly BARB's standard measurement does not include TV watched on other devices, such as tablets and smartphones, nor the growth of viewing on a TV set after seven days of the original broadcast, the report found that, if these were included, overall TV viewing increased by eight minutes to 3 hours, 42 minutes a day.

According to figures from the BBC, viewing of its broadcast TV channels fell by 8% compared with last year and the drop was particularly pronounced among viewers aged 16 to 34, BBC Three's core audience, who registered a fall of 18%.

Thinkbox noted that ITV2 saw its year-on-year viewing increase 27% over March to June, while E4 saw growth of 4%, and suggested commercial TV channels that cater for the 16-34 age group have gained from the closure of BBC Three.

So commercial TV is doing well on all screens but the importance of TV channels on TV sets is still significant as TV sets remain the first port of call for the majority of people across all age definitions. The BBC have clearly made a mistake with BBC3 - some of us saw that one coming a ling time ago!

At Goodman we offer impartial advice on all media - especially TV. We have been buying all forms of advertising since the day we started, so if you need help in working both traditional and digital advertising into your marketing strategy, reaching the right audience at the right cost for your business, we'd love to help you make the most of your options. Call us now on 0845 225 5555