Ratings boosted by wet weather

The wet weather in July this year has boosted TV viewing with average audiences up by almost 10% year on year.

Typically, television viewing takes a dip during the summer as potential audiences head outdoors. But over the first 24 days of this month average viewing has risen by 9.8% across all hours.

In July 2006 the total average audience size was just over 7.4m. For the same period this year it stands at just over 8.1m

Overall viewing has also been boosted by strong performances by one-off event programmes. BBC1's extensive live coverage of the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium averaged an impressive 12.2m (47.9%) between 8.10pm and 10.30pm.

The unseasonably wet weather and subsequent flooding also boosted viewers to the corporation's news bulletins.

BBC1's news on 1 July at 10.30pm attracted an average audience of 9.2m (47.3%). That was 3.2m more viewers than watched the most popular news bulletin in July last year when 6m (32.2%) watched a show on the second day of the month.

Not every channel has managed to benefit from the overall rise in viewing though. BBC1, Channel 4 and Five have all seen their share diminish.

Year on year, Five's share is down from 6% to 5.3%, BBC1 has slipped from 24.8% to 22% and C4 is down from 11.2% to 9.1%.

BBC2 has seen a marginal increase in its share from 8.2% to 8.3% while ITV1's has grown from 17% to 18.5%.

The commercial network has scored a number of big hits over the month with Coronation Street on 2 July attracting just over 10m (43.4%), more than 500,000 more viewers than the most popular edition of the soap in July last year.

An episode of Heartbeat on 15 July at 8pm gained a sizeable 7.3m (32.4%).

The multichannel offerings, collectively, have benefited the most, growing their share from 32.7% to 36.8%.

Souce: Broadcast Now