MediaTel

BARB viewing data for the first month of 2002 showed that again ITV1 saw a year on year drop in all homes, from a share of just below 30% to a share of just over 26%. However, its terrestrial rival, BBC1 did not see much movement year on year, increasing its share by 0.15 percentage points, while the largest increase in viewing share across all homes was for Other channels, which increased from 17.6% share in January 2001 to 20.8% share in January 2002.

Channel 5 saw a good year on year improvement in its January viewing share across all homes, breaching the 6% share mark. Although its share remains the smallest, with Channel 4 hovering around the 10% mark and BBC2 around 11%, catching up does not look impossible, especially in digital homes.

The BBC channels saw the improvements in viewing share in digital homes during January, although both only saw increases of less than one percentage point. Share slippage was witnessed at ITV1, which fell just below the 20% mark year on year, although in these households it remains ahead of BBC1. Share was also down year on year for Other channels, from 46.3% in 2001 to 45.5% in 2002.

Subscribers can access the Television database by selecting "Television" from the drop-down box at the top of this page.