Audience figures for BBC News 24
HOW MANY
PEOPLE WATCH
BBC NEWS 24?
BBC News 24 is watched by six million people
each week. About three-quarters of these watch the service overnight
or at weekends on BBC1 and BBC2, the remainder watch the 24 hour
channel in multi-channel homes. In contrast, Sky News has just
over four million viewers. BBC News 24, unlike Sky News, is not
carried on analogue satellite services.
The current weekly three-minute reach to BBC
News 24 is 6.0 million (11 per cent of the UK population). About
a quarter of the audience are accessing the channel in cable homes
(1.3 million people). The remaining three-quarters of the viewers
(4.7 million people) are watching the service on BBC1 and BBC2.
However, this is probably an underestimate of the channel's total
reach as it does not include people watching the 24 hour service
in either DTT or DSat homes[2].
In contrast, Sky News' total reach is 4.2 million
(8 per cent of the UK population). This figure consists of 1.6
million in cable homes and 2.6 million in analogue satellite homes.
The 4.2 million also excludes viewers to Sky News in DSat homes
(Sky News is not currently carried on DTT).
WHAT IS
BBC NEWS 24'S
COMPETITIVE POSITION
IN CABLE
HOMES?[3]
In Cable homes, in October, the reach and share
figures were:
| 3 Minute Reach
| Share |
| BBC News 24 | 15.4 per cent (1.3 million)
| 0.62 per cent |
| Sky News | 19.0 per cent (1.6 million)
| 0.59 per cent |
These charts also illustrate how the news agenda can affect
both share and reach. For example, April's high figures are due
to the start of the Kosovo bombing.
All these figures are taken from the BARB Cable Panel. This
is a robust and reliable sample of 569 cable households. BARB
has recently launched a Digital Panel but this currently consists
of just 150 households all of which are SkyDigital homes (ie DTT
homes are not yet included). We believe that audience figures
from this panel are not yet statistically reliable for channels
which achieve relatively low reach and share—such as the
news channels.
2
We do not currently have any reliable figures for the reach of
BBC News 24 in either DTT (currently 0.4 million) DSat (currently
1.8 million) homes. However, if we assume that BBC News 24's percentage
reach in these homes is the same as it achieves in cable homes
(ie 15 per cent) then DTT and DSat homes would add approximately
a further 0.3 million people to the current total estimate of
0.6 million viewers. Back
3
There are currently about 3.2 million cable homes in the UK.
BBC News is distributed to 96 per cent of all cable homes compared
with Sky News' distribution to 75 per cent of all cable homes.
The figures cited above record the reach and share across all
cable homes, not just those homes where the channel is distributed. Back
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