I wondered if someone may help or point me in the right direction. I am looking for viewing figures for BBC South East Today from Tunbridge Wells. Both before and after the introduction of HD available in the area. The news programme doesn't at the moment broadcast in HD.
Grateful for assistance. Thank you
Michael Gunnill
Kent.
Sorry I posted this in the wrong forum area before.
I've no idea where you'd get them from or whether HD would have made much of a difference in such a small region. Also what do you count as 'the start of HD', when BBC1 HD launched or when it launched terrestrially in the South East?
If there is a change in viewing, either positive or negative, then attributing it to HD could be a tricky link to make. Also you would need figures for a long period - before and after 'HD' - to identify a trend
Thank you for your reply. There is a suggestion that people with HD television sets do not turn over ( back to BBC 1 ) when local slots come on. For example on HD in Kent there is a red holding screen while while BBC South East Today is on. This has been reported by a number of television engineers working in peoples homes etc..
If this is so, viewing figures for South East Today will have gone down. I can see the problem getting the figures but I thought they would make interesting reading.
Thank you for your reply. There is a suggestion that people with HD television sets do not turn over ( back to BBC 1 ) when local slots come on. For example on HD in Kent there is a red holding screen while while BBC South East Today is on. This has been reported by a number of television engineers working in peoples homes etc..
If this is so, viewing figures for South East Today will have gone down. .
Sorry, I think you're overestimating how many people enjoy watching a red holding screen.
I can't imagine their ratings will have fallen by more than two or three idiots who can't read the information in front of them.
Though since they're taking the trouble of switching anyway at that point, they might end up on some other channel, rather than sticking with the regional news as they would have been most likely to if no action had been required.
To be fair, since the launch of BBC1 HD I've watched a lot less BBC London News than I did before. Not that I don't know how to switch back, I just end up flicking around other channels rather than always going straight to channel 1. With my parents it has the opposite effect - they end up not bothering with BBC1 HD much as they got sick of one of their favourite programmes not being there. I know it sounds silly but to people of a certain age they just can't get their head around it...
I certainly don't think it's a daft thing to research and I'd be interested to see what you come up with.
What I can see is that "BBC London News" appeared in the BARB Top 30 programmes most recently in November 2009 (A Sunday bulletin with 4.3m). That is actually a combination of all of the regional programmes rather than just London.
What I can't say with any certainty is whether it hasn't appeared since because of a methodology change and each regional programme is now listed separately (so wouldn't get into the Top 30) or because the viewing figures have gone down.