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ITV news gets record ratings
Dominic Timms Tuesday March 25, 2003
ITV's decision to move its main evening new forward to 9pm paid off again with the rescheduled bulletin pulling in more than 9 million viewers. According to unofficial overnights, the audience for ITV's 20-minute bulletin peaked at 9.3 million as more than one in three viewers tuned in to the Trevor McDonald-fronted edition broadcast live from Kuwait. The ratings success follows a similar performance for ITV News on Sunday, when a 15-minute bulletin at 9pm went head to head with a news special on BBC1 and attracted just over 9 million viewers, 3.6 million more than the BBC. Helped by a healthy inherited audience from Coronation Street, which pulled in 14 million viewers, the ITV bulletin emerged as the clear winner over BBC1's later 10pm broadcast, which notched up an audience of 6.3 million and a 28% share. The BBC, however, drew more viewers to its early evening news programme, which technically began at 3.30pm and rolled on until 7pm. It started with an audience of 1.8 million but improved rapidly to peak at 6.9 million at 6.15pm. ITV's 6pm bulletin, meanwhile, averaged 5.5 million viewers, peaking at 6.2 million at 6.45pm. Channel 4's 7pm bulletin pulled in 1.6 million viewers and a 11% share, well ahead of its daily average last year of about 1 million. ITV also won the news special battle last night. The BBC's Real Story: Colchester Goes to War attracted 2.7 million and a 11% against Coronation Street, while Tonight With Trevor McDonald pulled in 4.6 million against EastEnders' 13.9 million. A later ITV news at 10.30pm garnered 4.2 million viewers and a 26% share, edging out both BBC2's Newsnight (1.5 million and a 11% share) and Channel 4's Frasier, which had 1.2 million and a 9% share. BBC1's recorded coverage of the Oscars met with as much apathy among British viewers as ABC's live coverage did with American audiences. The programme, fronted by Jonathan Ross, managed 1.9 million viewers - less than half the 5.1 million watched ITV's Tarrant on TV between 10.45 and 11.30pm.  |
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