Ratings Review: BARB 5th June 2007

I haven't been following the ratings too much recently, but I do notice in the latest publicly available figures on the BARB website, some very interesting stats.

It is noticeable that Sky One has lost a lot of ground and is now pulling in it's lowest viewing figures ever. Just a 1.1 share / 15.7 weekly reach. It is even more noticeable, that whilst Sky Three has a lower share than Sky One (0.7), the weekly reach figures are better (17.9). Obviously the Sky vs Virgin Media incident is doing Sky One a great deal of damage.

In terms of share of viewing this week, Sky One is now behind the likes of BBC Three (1.2), CBeebies (1.2), E4 (1.2), ITV3 (1.4), ITV2 (1.8) and Sky Sports 1 (2.4). Sky One has never fallen this low and it remains to be seen just what will be done, particularly in regards to Sky Three's prescence on Freeview and the Sky / Virgin Media situation.

Now, for the worst performers of the week. These channels rate so low on share that it's between 0 and 0.1, so we rank them by weekly reach instead. The worst of the worst is Setanta Sports 2, which only broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays, in a similar way to Sky Sports 2's early years. They rank just 29,000 viewers this week. Then comes MUTV (48,000), The Business Channel (50,000), Legal TV (90,000) and Rockworld TV (92,000).

Setanta may be making a big deal out of the fact that they have Premiership Football from August, but their current ratings are incredibly low. In fact, Setanta Sports 1, which now broadcasts on both Sky and Digital Terrestrial (note: Digital Terrestrial, not Freeview, as you have to pay a subscription), only gets 205,000 viewers per week, and doesn't score high enough on the share of viewing table to get a 0.1, but does at least avoid a complete 0. Out of all the Sports channels that we can track on the BARB ratings, only the Golf Channel UK comes in with a worse performance than Setanta Sports 1 (159,000) and the next worst above Setanta Sports 1 is the now defunkt Prem Plus, which scored 252,000 for one of the last matches they ever showed. Setanta Sports have their work cut out.

BBC Three liquidises Liquid News

It has been speculated on since the death of Christopher Price in 2002, but now we know for sure. BBC Three is bringing the axe down on Liquid News.

The entertainment news programme, which grew out of BBC News 24's Zero 30 slot, became a digital phenomenon, mainly due to the attitude the presenter, Christopher Price, brought to the show. These days, hosted by Patrick 'Paddy' O'Connell and Claudia Winkleman, the show has been desperately trying to recapture its former glories, and sadly failing.

On Thursday 13 Nov, BBC Three controller Stuart Murphy pulled the plug on the programme, praising the programme's achievements, but stating that BBC Three was an evolving channel and sometimes, tough decisions had to made.

Whilst it was clear that Liquid News was perhaps having a rough time, I am yet to be convinced that Liquid News was out of time, or indeed had run out of steam. Replacing it in the schedules will be no easy task. This move may also serve another purpose, allowing BBC News 24 to create an entertainment bulletin to fit their channel, and bringing all the information programming under one roof, so to speak. Liquid News will finish in April 2004, it is clear that if any replacement is to be created, it must be done soon.