Christmas Ratings

9.7m..(40%)..Eastenders BBC1
9.2m..(39%)..Coronation Street ITV1
6.6m..(30%)..My Family BBC1
6.5m..(32%)..Emmerdale ITV1
5.5m..(26%)..BBC News; Weather BBC1
5.2m..(22%)..Ballet Shoes BBC1
4.8m..(26%)..Monsters, Inc BBC1
4.7m..(21%)..The Old Curiosity Shop ITV1
4.0m..(18%)..That's What I Call Christmas Television ITV1

Interesting that here in Northern Ireland, it was the complete opposite to the rest of the UK! This is taken from the UTV website, u.tv:

UTV WINS PEAKTIME CHRISTMAS DAY RATINGS

UTV has once again won the Christmas Day peaktime ratings battle against BBC1 NI with a 37% share of viewing compared to 34% for BBC NI, bucking the national trend which saw BBC1 take a 44% share and the ITV Network 24%.

Coronation Street remains Northern Ireland’s favourite soap as more than 420,000 viewers tuned in to see Kevin being arrested for knocking Rosie's philandering teacher to the ground, compared to 388,000 viewers watching Eastenders. On a national level Eastenders with a share of 55% was ahead of Coronation Street at 35%.

And on Boxing Day, while nationally the BBC’s Eastenders took a 40% share against ITV’s Coronation Street at 37% - in Northern Ireland UTV beat the BBC by securing a massive 62% share (422,000 viewers) with Coronation Street well ahead of Eastenders at 48% (315,000 viewers).

Michael Wilson, Managing Director of UTV Television said: “We are delighted that viewers once again made us first choice for Christmas and we look forward to offering more top rating entertainment in the New Year. We wish all of our viewers a very happy 2008.”

I know that this may be a weird way to look at this, and most probably totally unrelated, but do you think that these figures are increased on UTV because UTV put in an effort with their presentation, especially at Christmas, making it feel more welcome in a way?

I wouldn't think they'd have that much of an impact.


It would be interesting to see a region by region breakdown actually - wouldn't surprise me if with the soaps at least, ITV could claim victory by winning in the most regions considering most people north of Watford realise what utter crap EastEnders is.

In your opinion of course, you're hate for EastEnders is frightening, considering the cack Corrie has put out in recent months.

And to even it up, i think the same can be said for the utter crap that Corrie gave us on Christmas Day.

can't we just say: all soaps are crack

That is true.
Should we also look at the fact of adverts.
I still think that ITV could gain something by airing all adverts and trailers within the programmes, and then go from the credits to the ident into the next programme.

Should we also look at the way that ratings are recorded.
Should BARB take the viewing habbits of more people into account?

It would be interesting, for example is Coronation Street particularly popular in the Granada region, Emmerdale in the Yorkshire region etc

I expect ITV is more popular up North, BBC most popular in London, the South East, South, South West, West and East

Did UTV have the same schedule as ITV1 then?

Yes the only opt-out on UTV was at 10:10 on Christmas morning where they showed a regional programme called 'It's a Baby' instead of 'Creature Comforts'. The rest of the day's schedule was the same as ITV1.

I think the same goes for Saturday nights, nearly everyone I know, including myself tend to be ITV people on a Saturday night, I know people who may dip in and out of SCD on the BBC, but the talk about shows tend to be ITV's.

Saying that it is probably the opposite down South, but if any Southerner would care to explain, feel free.

I absolutely love Coronation Street and ive enjoyed it this year, I admit it has had some bad episodes but thats what comes of having it on 5 episodes a week. Its ITV who insist on that not Steve Frost.

IMHO its had excellent episodes and storylines this year too like Tracy killing Charlie, the trial, all the different storylines with the Connors, I could go on and on.

And the episode on Christmas Day wasnt Corrie at its best but it was far from "utter crap" IMO. Eastenders always beat Corrie during Christmas week as more people tend to watch BBC1 over Christmas but there are 51 other weeks in the year and people shouldnt just focus on the Christmas ratings.