BBC One claims its drama The Lost Prince was a major success

The figures, for the 12 months ending 31 March 2003, showed BBC One had 26.7% of the television audience share.

This was a rise of 0.3% compared to the last figures, for the 12 months up to 31 December 2002.

But ITV1's figure - made up of the share of its 16 licensed ITV companies - increased by 1.6% to 25.9% compared to the audience share calculations.

The results come as the BBC continues its campaign to try and boost the audience share of its flagship TV channel, part of a strategy begun three years ago with the appointment of Greg Dyke as director general.

A BBC One spokeswoman said: "What we had need to do was build a really strong base of shows, and then launch more challenging programmes.

Footballers' Wives, starring Susie Amy, is one of ITV1's top-raters

"What's been happening has come into play, and it's really working on screen, with things like the drama The Lost Prince shown in January.

"We're taking the audience that comes into popular shows and trying to take them into other programmes," she said.

ITV said its sharp increase was down to more investment in its programming.

'Great new dramas'

"At the beginning of the year we promised that we would invest �100m more in to our schedule and this is paying off," a spokeswoman said.

"The first quarter of the year ITV1 showed some great new dramas, such as Sons and Lovers with Sarah Lancashire, The Royal and The Second Coming, as well as new series of favourites such as Midsomer Murders, Footballers' Wives and Hornblower and Frost," she said.

Greg Dyke is sending BBC managers on leadership courses

BBC Two posted figures of 11.3%, which were down 0.2% in comparison to the most recent figures.

Channel 4's audience share, meanwhile, fell from 9.8% to 9.6%. Five, which was handed another 10 broadcast licence earlier this year, rose from 6.3% to 6.4%.

The figures have been released the day the Greg Dyke announced that every year 1,500 of the BBC's managers would be sent on an eight-day leadership course to help boost creativity.

In April, BBC One and ITV1 found they had been overtaken by the combined ratings of non-terrestrial channels for the first time, the Broadcasters Audience Research Board found.