Press Releases

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

BBC One and BBC Two lead peak time viewing with shares of 22.9% and 8.6% respectively.

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

BBC 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.

BBC 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. CBBC 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).

BBC 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 BBC's portfolio of channels increased their share both in all hours (36.5% from 35.7%) and in peak (40.2% from 39.7%).

BBC 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.

BBC 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.

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

BBC Four had its best Christmas share to date with a 1% share.

CBBC 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 CBBC 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).

BBC 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 BBC 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 BBC 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, BBC 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 BBC 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 BBC 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, BBC 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 BBC HD or BBC iPlayer.

"And the good news looks to be continuing into 2010 with fantastic performances from BBC One's entertainment show So You Think You Can Dance (6.9m) and BBC 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.

BBC One is Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival Channel Of The Year.

BBC Four is Freesat Evening Digital Channel Of The Year.

DP