BBC One Record Low Rating

Yes, don't get why they're burning it off so quickly either. It does frustrate me that even with BBC1 shows they now push the iPlayer ahead of broadcast quite often now, especially for a show like Talking Heads.

Does anyone else feel like the BBC should premier shows on BBC One then move them to iplayer more?

Why?

An increasing amount of viewers, specifically 16-34, don't watch TV like that anymore. At the end of the day, the figures will be consolidated, especially with BARB's Dovetail additional measurement.

I think reach is more important to the BBC than audience share. It would be very easy for them to just have shows like Antiques Roadshow and The Repair Shop and cosy dramas all week long but there is a danger that the underserved audiences would just stop watching BBC programmes altogether. That's why we've seen things like Peaky Blinders move to BBC One or commissioning things like Normal People and His Dark Materials.

If you put a show up on iplayer weeks before it goes on air that won't count to ratings for this week when it actually aired surely?

What I'm suggesting is they stop putting these up on BBC3 online weeks ago and then giving them a BBC1 showing and just show them on BBC1 to start with then release them to iplayer, so viewers online go in the 7 days.

It counts as pre-transmission.

This was up a week before, not weeks before, and it can work both ways with word of mouth driving viewers to a linear broadcast.

It's being thrown around the schedule even more in the nations. Episode 3 got a 40 minute slot, and yet BBC Wales still managed to find a way to chuck it over to BBC Two, in order to keep the last episode of a magazine show that has otherwise run in 30 minute slots on BBC One. Similarly Episodes 4 and 5 combined have a 75-minute slot on Monday night, but they've been pushed after the news so that "Katherine Jenkins' 40th Birthday Show" (dear God) can go out at 9, preceded by a 15 minute filler.

I know Talking Heads isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but for a high-profile drama commission, the scheduling is nuts.

Seems weird to move back to a model of the past just to increase ratings... on the BBC. Where ratings are kinda secondary anyway.

I mean, I have always loved linear TV (shouldn’t come as a surprise, seeing as I’m on here), but even I have now reached the point where waiting for a non-live programme to begin has started to feel a bit... 17th century.

So, the BBC prioritising the iPlayer to premiere things at people’s own accord seems very logical to me.

Of course the ratings count, they don't need to put shows on broadcast TV (i.e. BBC One) to increase viewing figures.

The beauty of iPlayer is the BBC is in complete control of the platform, which means they immediately know exactly how many people have viewed each episode of each programme, and for how long. The login requirement means they now also have fairly accurate demographics. If anything the iPlayer figures are much more accurate than the figures from BARB, as every viewer is measured precisely.

BARB do include on-demand viewers in their ratings, but if they didn't it would be no loss to the BBC, they would just add the iPlayer figures to the BARB figures. The same applies to other broadcasters with their own on-demand platforms.

This is all academic anyways, as I and others have said viewings figures on their own aren't as important to the BBC as they are to commercial broadcasters.

The BBC seems to want viewers to watch its programme on iPlayer instead of linear TV.

Also there’ll be two episodes on Wednesday, one at 1930 and another after the Ten O’clock news. That makes the series look like a long breakfiller.