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Text Santa 2014

On The Night Total: £5,503,065 (December 2014)

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WH
Whataday Founding member
We had this exact same discussion last year, but the scheduling of Text Santa is a week or two too close to Christmas. Ratings wise, it doesn't help that they schedule it on the Friday before Christmas, which is one of the busiest nights in the pub trade.
DC
DCI02
It may be seen as more watchable, but it doesn't seem to have the fundraising power of CiN, Sport Relief or Comic Relief.

CiN raised more than £30m this year.

It's great that ITV are doing Text Santa, and it's great that it raises money for good causes. Equally I think there needs to be a recognition that CiN know what actually gets people to donate money.

CiN has been going for much longer thus more popular. In 30 years Text Santa will probably be making that much.
BR
Brekkie
It is building year on year which is the important thing and delivering respectable ratings on what would probably be a pretty dead Friday for ITV otherwise.
CA
Cando
It is building year on year which is the important .

Last year was nearly 20% down on 2012 and Friday was barely above 2012 despite having Philip's 24 hour Marathon and the phone profits from this years "I'm a celebrity..." included for the first time.
NG
noggin Founding member
It may be seen as more watchable, but it doesn't seem to have the fundraising power of CiN, Sport Relief or Comic Relief.

CiN raised more than £30m this year.

It's great that ITV are doing Text Santa, and it's great that it raises money for good causes. Equally I think there needs to be a recognition that CiN know what actually gets people to donate money.

CiN has been going for much longer thus more popular. In 30 years Text Santa will probably be making that much.


CiN raised £5.3m at the end of transmission (£8.6m consolidated), around the same as Text Santa this year, in 1986 6 years after Children in Need launched. The next year they were up to £17m as the final consolidated total.

Let's hope Text Santa does as well.
:-(
A former member
It was £14m in 87 and then £17m in 1988. I've always wonder why it sky rocketed around this time.
WH
Whataday Founding member
It may be seen as more watchable, but it doesn't seem to have the fundraising power of CiN, Sport Relief or Comic Relief.

CiN raised more than £30m this year.

It's great that ITV are doing Text Santa, and it's great that it raises money for good causes. Equally I think there needs to be a recognition that CiN know what actually gets people to donate money.

CiN has been going for much longer thus more popular. In 30 years Text Santa will probably be making that much.


CiN raised £5.3m at the end of transmission (£8.6m consolidated), around the same as Text Santa this year, in 1986 6 years after Children in Need launched. The next year they were up to £17m as the final consolidated total.

Let's hope Text Santa does as well.


Although £5.3m in 1986 is about £13.5 million in 2014, allowing for inflation.

8 days later

FA
fanoftv
I have now finally caught up with this years Text Santa - big night. It was a good watch, however compared to the past few years I didn't feel that much went on in the studio, even Ant & Dec were restricted to the fairy tale segment and bush tucker trial.
The most entertaining studio partnership for me came from Paddy & Alesha, both were lively, and full of fun much what it needs. Phillip & Christine's part felt boring to me, but then they were mainly linking into VT's. Speaking of which each charity film seemed to go on for around 5 minutes, is this usually the case?

As for the total, as has been said the fact that they're raising money is the main thing, but I do still wonder what the totals are made of. When you take the over half a million from Schofe's 24 hr challenge, the £100k from the cube, the £10k from tipping point, the money from I'm a celeb phone lines, then the money from sponsors/merchandise it would seem like a very tiny amount from the viewers. Could it be that the on the night total is just that and not with anything extra added?
Last edited by fanoftv on 29 December 2014 5:32pm
PA
PATV Scunthorpe
It is only the viewer donations that are totalised, added extras are put after the calls close because I think (I am not for certain) that you can still call in and donate until January (again, not for certain)
FA
fanoftv
It is only the viewer donations that are totalised, added extras are put after the calls close because I think (I am not for certain) that you can still call in and donate until January (again, not for certain)


Lines for text & phone call are open until January 9th. Which makes me wonder why they haven't aired any specials/repeats/highlights between Christmas & New Year to keep people aware.
WH
Whataday Founding member
No matter how much is raised, it's still fairly cheap (but decent quality) television for the Friday before Christmas. Also I wonder if it counts towards some sort of public service quota?
AN
Andrew Founding member
It'll count towards ITV's social responsibility as a business, just like how many companies have official charities they donate to in a given year etc.

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