ITV impacts suffer double digit decline

ITV’s long-term viewing decline has continued into 1997 with a double-figure drop in its supply of commercial impacts – the number of viewers of ad breaks – for most important demographic groups.

Impacts are the industry’s preferred form of media currency.

Audience decline was the overwhelming cause of inflation on ITV in January, because advertiser de-mand rose by just over one per cent.

ITV’s young adult impacts fell 16 per cent year on year, against January 1996 when the same impacts fell by six per cent. Some individual ITV regions fell by more, including Meridian, whose young adult im-pacts dropped by 20 per cent year on year. This compares with a fall of only seven per cent on Channel 4.

Impacts from the ABC1 male audience fell by 13 per cent across the ITV network, while on London Weekend Television it fell by 26 per cent. Channel 4 increased its impacts from this audience by four per cent.

The housewives with children impacts fell by 12 per cent in January – after having fallen by five per cent in January 1995.