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Press Releases & Press Packs

18.02.03

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´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE reaches 16.3 million viewers in its first week on air

More than 16.3 million viewers sampled the output of ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE for more than 15 minutes in the channel's first week on air between the launch on Sunday 9 February and Sunday 16 February.

This quarter hour reach means that across all channels 39% of all 25 - 34 year olds watched ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE programming at some point last week.

Viewers had the chance to sample output across ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE and special zoned areas of programming on ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE and ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO.

´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE's audiences across the first week averaged 219,000 in digital homes. This figure represents an almost three fold increase from 78,000, the average audience for the last quarter of 2002 for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Choice.

A total of 25.1 million viewers sampled the output of ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE for three minutes in its first week on air from Sunday 9 February to Sunday 16 February.

Speaking one week on from launch Stuart Murphy, Controller ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE, said:

"´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE has got off to an encouraging start, and it's a tribute to the creative strength of the talent and the programme makers. These figures show that there is an appetite in the market place for originated British programming covering all subjects from entertainment and drama to news and current affairs."

The channel's originated programming was instrumental in attracting audiences to the new digital channel. Nearly 700,000 people watched episode one of Burn It, a gripping and original drama commissioned specially for the launch from Red Productions, across the first week on ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE and 0.8 million viewers watched it on ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE.

Dom Joly's spoof chat show, This Is Dom Joly, his first outing for the ´óÏó´«Ã½, peaked with an audience in digital homes of 214,000 and averaged 0.5 million on ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE.

Swiss Toni, of Fast Show fame, peaked at 297,000 digital viewers and 0.6 million tuned in to see him on ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO.

But successes were not confined to Drama and Entertainment programming. The News Show, ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE's dedicated week night 15-minute news bulletin, was watched by more people in digital homes than Channel 5 News on Thursday 13 February and peaked with an audience of 91,000.

Celebdaq, a unique interactive programme which combines entertainment, business and news with the excitement of real time share trading in some of the world's best known celebrities, was watched by a peak audience of 94,000 in digital homes. The site has 100,000 players and receives around 3 million hits per week.

Dreamspaces, an arts series about modern architecture and contemporary design, peaked at 97,000 and Body Hits, the first science series for ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE peaked at 220,000.

Johnny Vaughan's chatshow Johnny Vaughan Tonight peaked at 209,000 viewers on ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE and averaged 1.1 million on ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE.

The EastEnders premiere on Friday 14 February became the highest rating programme across ´óÏó´«Ã½ Choice/´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE with 1.18 million viewers and a 11% share.

Notes to Editors

• All figures listed are for peak time viewing between 7.00 - 11.00pm.

• The average audience per evening across the week were as follows:

• ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE broadcasts from 7.00pm - 4.00am each day.

• ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE joins ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE, ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO, ´óÏó´«Ã½ FOUR, C´óÏó´«Ã½ and Cbeebies as part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s portfolio of television channels.

THREE is the magic number - press pack and video clips (23.01.03)

´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE announces distinctive News and Current Affairs programmes for the under 35s (23.01.03)

´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE and ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO lend support to launch of ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE (07.01.03)

´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE to launch on 9 February 2003 (19.11.02)

´óÏó´«Ã½ unveils new logo for ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE (16.10.02)

´óÏó´«Ã½ welcomes approval for ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE (17.09.02)

Freeview offers the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s eight television channels - including ´óÏó´«Ã½ THREE - as well as six ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio networks.

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