±«Óãtv

Official viewing figures released this week confirm 2009 as a landmark year for ±«Óãtv Vision with an increasing number of Licence Fee payers enjoying ±«Óãtv Vision's programmes across a variety of platforms.

±«Óãtv One and ±«Óãtv Two lead peak time viewing with shares of 22.9% and 8.6% respectively.

±«Óãtv One remains the UK's most-watched channel with a 20.9% all-hours share.

±«Óãtv Three's share has grown by 10%. It was the most-watched digital channel among 16-34s with a 4.4% share and 34.5% reach in 2009.

±«Óãtv Four's share has also increased to 1% from 0.95%.

Both the children's channels increased their share among their target audiences this year. C±«Óãtv averaged 9.6% share among 6-12s in digital homes (up 0.7 share points on 2008) and among its target audience CBeebies' share was 16.3% (up 0.9 points on 2008).

±«Óãtv HD continued to grow over 2009; by December more than three million people watched the channel, triple the amount watching in January.

The figures also confirmed that this Christmas (22 December-1 January) the ±«Óãtv's portfolio of channels increased their share both in all hours (36.5% from 35.7%) and in peak (40.2% from 39.7%).

±«Óãtv One led Christmas terrestrial viewing with an all-hours share of 23.1% (from 22.7% last year) and maintained last year's peak share of 27%. Christmas Day Peak share at 40.5% was double that of the next most-watched channel.

±«Óãtv Two enjoyed a growth in share this Christmas (9.9% from last year's 9.7%) as well as its best peak share on Christmas Day for four years at 7.6%. The Top Gear Bolivia Special was watched by an audience of 7.1 million.

±«Óãtv Three had its best Christmas ever with share of 5.6% amongst 16-34s, ahead of all digital competition.

±«Óãtv Four had its best Christmas share to date with a 1% share.

C±«Óãtv achieved the highest reach across all children's channels for 6-12s this Christmas (in digital homes). It was also the highest-ever Christmas for C±«Óãtv in share terms, averaging 8.6% share of 6-12s across the Christmas period.

CBeebies reached more than half of its target audience across the Christmas period and achieved over three times the share of its nearest most-watched channel aimed at that age group (2-6 year olds).

±«Óãtv HD tripled its Christmas period reach to 2.5 million this year and its share in HD homes went up by 0.6 share points to 2.4%. The most watched ±«Óãtv HD programme on Christmas Day was Doctor Who (470,000; 13.9% share in HD homes).

The Top Gear pre-Christmas episode delivered the biggest average audience (550,000; 14.9% share in HD homes) the channel has had to date.

And, while TV audiences are proving to be as big as ever, the way people are watching is changing with time-shifted viewing making up a growing proportion of total TV viewing.

The Top 10 time-shifted programmes over the Christmas week were all ±«Óãtv programmes:

Doctor Who – 2.6m
The Royle Family – 2.4m
EastEnders (Christmas Day) – 1.6m
Catherine Tate – 1.6m
Gavin & Stacey – 1.6m
Top Gear Bolivia Special – 1.5m
EastEnders (Christmas Eve) – 1.4m
Outnumbered – 1.3m
The Gruffalo – 1.3m
Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special – 1.2m

Since launching on Christmas Day in 2007, ±«Óãtv iPlayer continues to grow in popularity with December 2009 having the highest number of TV programme requests to date. Now available on more than 20 different devices, audiences now have the option of watching ±«Óãtv iPlayer using their TV, mobile phone or games console.

New Year's Day proved to be the most popular day over the Christmas period to catch up with ±«Óãtv programmes, with 2.8 million requests for TV programmes alone. Some of the top requested programmes over the period were:

The Top Gear Bolivia Special
Doctor Who Christmas Special
Gavin & Stacey
Christmas Day edition of EastEnders
Outnumbered

Jana Bennett, Director, ±«Óãtv Television and online content, says: "Our channels' performance in 2009 in general, and over the Christmas period in particular, show that TV viewing in all its varieties is alive and well, whether it's live viewing, time-shifted or on new services like ±«Óãtv HD or ±«Óãtv iPlayer.

"And the good news looks to be continuing into 2010 with fantastic performances from ±«Óãtv One's entertainment show So You Think You Can Dance (6.9m) and ±«Óãtv Three's drama Being Human (1.4m), a 50% increase on the average audience for the first series."

Notes to Editors

For the purposes of this release the Christmas period is measured 21 December–1 January.

±«Óãtv One is Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival Channel Of The Year.

±«Óãtv Four is Freesat Evening Digital Channel Of The Year.

DP