New BARB ratings system

BARB has introduced a new ratings system to measure the attentiveness of viewers watching commercial TV programmes to distinguish appointment-to-view TV from viewers simply 'in the room with the set on'.

Countdown and Watercolour Challenge rate higher than Friends and Ally McBeal as 'must-see' TV programmes, according to new research from Carat Insight.

Coronation Street is the most absorbing programme according to the research, which gives the soap a 86.5% QRP (Quality Ratings Points) figure. Emmerdale, Countdown, Frasier and The Man in the Van also make the top 10, and Scrapheap Challenge and Fifteen-to-One are surprise high scorers.

Across the channels, ITV as a whole comes out on top with the network's average QRP conversion factor at 75% for all adults, compared to 68% for C4.

It's obvious why ITV1 comes out top. 95% of their viewers are totally braindead and can do nothing other than sit and look at a screen (says the person who's currently watching a TV programme on the a computer...)

Countdown is an obvious winner, you have to pay attention to get the letters!

Frasier isn't that surprising. I'm not a fan of American comedy at all, but Frasier has some class about it, it's one of those programmes you can watch again and again and still not get bored of it. No idea why.

Surprised at Corrie. It's the easiest programme to walk away from, especially with their current storylines.

Coronation Street's storyline's are a bit **** at the moment, Eastenders is miles better and their storyline's aren't at their best but we are bound to have some good storyline's when Christmas really arrives. I've never liked Fraiser and I know my nan watches countdown!

I think Corrie and Eastenders, and all soaps should go to a 3 night a week format. 2 nights a week is not enough- trying to cram too much in. 4 is too much- spreading a storyline over too much, and including too much crap storylines.