The BBC is pleased (with itself).
According to The Times, they beat ITV all hands down this Christmas, ratings-wise, taking 9 out of 10 of the places on this year's 'most-watched programmes on Christmas Day' list.
Charlotte Moore, director of content at the BBC, said: “We’re happy so many people chose to watch BBC One. We want to offer something for everyone.”
That said, not that even the highest-rated programme, Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show, with 6.1 million viewers, got anywhere near the kind of viewers that Morecambe and Wise got in 1977 (28 million) but, of course, there's vastly more choice nowadays.
The BBC will be much less pleased if they read the comments below the Times article though. It's a long list of complaints about how unimaginative, how PC, how rubbish, the BBC's offerings were this Christmas.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
ReplyDeleteI did think Click and Collect with Stephen Merchant was very well crafted and well written. Not sure it was worth all the bias we will be having shoved down out throats for the next twelve months though.
ReplyDeleteThere are only so many ways they can try and spin and get away with it.
ReplyDeleteCh4 had its ‘interview’ with Tarzan bemoaning how old Pharts had let down the young as the most popular broadcast..... on their insignificant show on their insignificant channel.
Bottomline 90% of the UK population didn't watch the top BBC show, only about 10% did.
ReplyDeleteSo not exactly the heartbeat of the nation.
That is like parsnip sellers discussing their part in Christmas dinners.
Indeed- a good observation!
DeleteAgreed - the more on demand services take over its only going one way. IPlayer is ok and there’s no reason it can’t have “free/tax funded” and paid for content. I bet the number who’d watch it then would be tiny!
DeleteOnce upon a time, until around the 1980s, ITV used to really fight for ratings on Xmas Day. Then advertisers stopped being so keen on paying over the odds for advertising on a day when the audience couldn't go out and buy stuff. ITV then stopped spending a fortune trying to buy ratings.
ReplyDeleteShopping patterns might have changed but ITV's attitude hasn't. The other commercial channels have followed suit and basically give up the day to the BBC, who of course don't have to worry about advertisers and just care about the "prestige".