Shows such as EastEnders boosted BBC One's share

It received a 26.3% share of the available audience, compared to ITV1's 24%, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) said.

BBC Two came third with an 11.3% share, with Channel 4 scoring 9.6% and Five 6.4%.

BBC News 24, the BBC's digital rolling news channel - subject of a government-ordered independent review - took 0.4% of the share.

The Simpsons is one of Sky One's biggest draws

This was about half of the audience achieved by its rival Sky News, on 0.7%. Fellow news providers CNN and ITN News rated 0.1%.

Sky One - home of The Simpsons and Buffy the Vampire Slayer - was by far the best-performing digital entertainment channel, with 1.7% of share.

ITV's digital entertainment channel ITV2 scored 0.7% - the same figure as E4, Channel 4's equivalent - home to series such as Big Brother Uncut.

Fledgling BBC digital channels Three and Four scored just 0.1% in the ITC's quarterly rundown of audience share, analysing the 12 months to 30 June.

The figures for audience share reflect the percentage of viewers who actually watch programmes.

Other figures are calculated by audience "reach", which calculates the number of people who have access to programmes.

An inquiry into BBC News 24 headed by former Financial Times editor Richard Lambert concluded last year that it was not sufficiently different from its commercial rivals.

The BBC's spending on its interactive TV and online services has also attracted criticism from some MPs who accuse it of quashing its commercial rivals and wasting licence-payers' money.

According to the BBC's annual report, it spent �279.9m on its digital expansion programme last year.