BBC Regional News Ratings Beat ITV

I can see why people knock Granada Reports, as said half of the time it isn't even News, just competitons and really awful banter, it started going wrong when a certain Mr Wilson left the programme, just because he swore on air!

Though saying that I don't think North West Tonight is that great, granted it provides a higher quality programme than Granada Reports, but it has been using the same format of only Gordon Burns for along time now and it can get a bit boring.

It really does depend which Region you're in, it also can also be different if you're in a sub region which one channel covers and the other doesn't for instance, such as Border (Scotland). ITV IIRC has more sub-regions that the BBC doesn't do or doesn't provide full bulletins for, and in those regions ratings are probably higher.

Also note that in the last few years the teatime schedule has changed on ITV for many reasons, alot of Regional News programmes on ITV used to go out at 6.30pm, and competed against their BBC counterparts, they also inherited the huge audience from Home & Away aswell. Those regions that had an hour long programme at 6pm, probably lost some viewers when they started at 5.30pm, which just didn't work.

One final thing, how are ratings for London Tonight, when it was still being made by LNN the show averaged at 450,000 where as BBC London News was about twice of that. Wouldn't surprise me if the ratings declined since ITN tookover.

I wouldn't be surprised if it had increased.

What we here think makes a good news programme doesn't always seem to match what the general public want

When was the last time anyone saw itv1 promote the regional news programmes in a quality way? They dont even formally announce into the regional news anymore certainly in the regions I've seen. The ads end, a regional promo staggers to an end and the titles run. I know we dont have clocks anymore, but there was a time when news on itv was introduced with gravitas.

Perhaps if it was introduced straight from the tail end of the preceeding programme, it might inherit the audience - if Paul O'Grady's audience is what they're looking for!

BBC London News gets double the figures of London Tonight? That surprises me...well it does with the old version. The new version is crap and doesn't feel like a news programme. It's the same problem I have with the new ITV Lunchtime News.

Those were the ratings given before London Tonight switched from LNN to ITN, LT would get 400,000 or so and BBC LDN would get 800,000. Now saying that it wouldn't surprise me if both programmes have lost viewers.

I think the BBC local bulletin was a lot better when it was Newsroom South East, this new version looks like they film it in an overlit club. And they both pale into comparison to the old Thames News with Andrew Gardner. When Thame lost its franchise London lost a very good news programme.

Surely these are "overnights" - the Beeb and Broadcast may be using the more reliable consolidated ratings (that are more accurately checked, and also include video viewing - though I can't imagine many people tape the local news!)

You are also comparing shares - in two different slots - which may not be misleading?

It is entirely possible that ITV may have a higher share in the 1800-1830 slot in one region than the Beeb did in the 1830-1900 slot, but if the total audience changed between the two slots then the BBC may have had a higher audience in the 1830-1900 (if more people were watching TV as a whole) slot than ITV had in the 1800-1830 slot.

You have to be very clear about what you are comparing - and how you spin it...

In Northern Ireland UTV live has always been more popular than Newsline, and UTV more popular than BBC 1 generally. Why is this so? I know a lot of women watch Emmerdale and Coronation Street but that can't explain all of it. They are always trying to be chummy and local on UTV as well, perhaps the BBC locally still seems too establishment to them.

I also miss Newsroom South East. The BBC made a mistake in splitting the region so extensively. Southeast Today was rightly created, but Oxford should have remained part of the London region, with a sub-opt from 6.00-6.15. I remember at one of the public consultations in Oxford nearly everyone prefered the idea of becoming a sub-opt of London to becoming part of South Today. A BBC representative responded by saying something like 'it wouldn't be relavant to you', to which one of the audience replied 'well, it would be more relavant than Southampton and Dorset news!'. Even the idea of combining Oxford with Sandy Heath gained more support!
Anyway, something has to be done about the Oxford-opt. The programme is a disaster!

UTV is not "more popular than BBC 1 generally". Certainly, UTV generally beats BBC ONE NI between 1800 and 2200 (EastEnders excepted) , but at almost all other times of the day, BBC ONE NI beats UTV. Soaps in UTV land do fantastically well. Emmerdale has a higher share in NI than in Yorkshire. Coronation Street can do 70% share here on a big story, and does 54% on an average one.

Is it because people from northern ireland can identify with people from the north of england better than those from london?

True. And that's the trouble with audience figures.
I quoted one day earlier this week (which was all I had to hand at the time of posting).
We saw no figures in the original post from Broadcast Now so we aren't sure if it's a week, month or whatever.
All I can tell you is that on a day to day basis TTTV and Border beat the BBC competition.
As you say we ALL need to be wary of figures and the way they are spun