Record six months for commercial TV
- Commercial impacts reached record high in January-June as viewing continues to grow -
- New online TV services helping to expand TV viewing time -
London, 12 August 2008: Commercial broadcast TV had a record-breaking first six months of 2008. Total commercial impacts were up 6% on the same period last year – 15% growth over the last five years – according to the latest figures from The Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB).
During January to June, the UK watched 2.4 billion broadcast TV ads a day, an average of 42 per person. Within BARB’s total figure, commercial impacts are also up for key advertiser audiences. ABC1s are watching 9% more TV ads and 16-34s are watching 3% more.
The figures, published in Thinkbox’s Half Year Review, also show that the much-reported popularity of watching TV via broadcasters’ web services – such as ITV.com, Sky Player, iPlayer, 4OD and Demand Five – seen in the first half of 2008, seems to be incremental to the broadcast TV that people have always watched. BARB’s figures only measure domestic broadcast TV, and they show that people watched 3.77 hours of broadcast TV a day in the first half of 2008. This is 2% more than the five year average for the period and compares well to figures from ten years ago, when the average daily viewing was 3.65 hours a day.
In particular, commercial broadcast viewing is performing very strongly, up 4% on the same period last year and up 8.5% on the same period ten years ago. People in the UK watched an average of 2.34 hours of commercial TV a day during January to June 2008.
That both broadcast and online TV platforms are growing simultaneously underlines how they fulfil different needs for viewers and that they can co-exist and indeed promote each other. Thinkbox’s recent joint research with the Internet Advertising Bureau showed how online TV services are primarily used as a means of catching up with the broadcast stream. Thinkbox last week announced that it has commissioned further research to examine how and why people use online TV, its relationship to broadcast TV and the advertising opportunities it affords, with preliminary results expected before the end of the year.
The growth in the first six months of 2008 builds on commercial TV’s historic performance last year, when impacts reached an all time high with an increase of 3.9% versus 2006 – 11% growth since 2003. With growth set to continue, 2008 looks set to be another record year for commercial impacts.
The continued growth in commercial viewing and impacts has been fuelled by at least four influences: compelling programming, increased digital TV penetration (at nearly 90% of homes), a creative renaissance in UK advertising and some classic British weather. The wider choice of TV options that comes with digital TV and its technologies – like digital TV recorders – leads to an increase in TV viewing. The latest data from Sky’s Skyview panel shows that households watch 5% more TV adverts when they get Sky+.
Tess Alps, Thinkbox’s chief executive: “This is a shaft of very bright light that cuts through any economic gloom. Broadcast TV revenues held firm in the first half of 2008, and, whatever the economic climate holds for the advertising market, I hope these figures will underline the great strength and resilience of commercial TV. Advertisers should be taking advantage of a medium that offers proven effectiveness, increasing value, and is growing. The advertisers who recognize this will enjoy bottom lines as healthy as TV’s viewing figures.”
-ends-
For more information, please contact Simon Tunstill by
emailing simon.tunstill@thinkbox.tv or calling 020 7630 2326
Notes to editors
An ad must be viewed at normal speed to register as a commercial impact. The figures quoted are for 30” weighted impacts which is the industry norm.
About Thinkbox
Thinkbox is the television marketing body for the main UK commercial broadcasters - Channel 4, Five, GMTV, ITV, Sky Media, Turner Media Innovations and Viacom Brand Solutions. It works with the UK marketing community with a single ambition: to help customers get the best out of television. Thinkbox was launched in February 2005
TV today has more to offer advertisers than ever before, not least because this growing medium remains at the heart of popular culture and advertising effectiveness. From understanding how audiences engage with TV advertising, explaining innovative and affordable solutions, to providing the rigorous proof of effectiveness that advertisers need, Thinkbox is here to help customers meet their marketing objectives.