Total TV audience drops as viewers turn off soaps
high ratings. The last series of the ITV contest, which saw boy band Rak-Su crowned champion, failed to achieve more than eight million viewers throughout its entire run.
This represents a steep drop in viewership when compared with the show’s sixth series in 2009, which peaked at 19.7 million UK viewers during the finale.
TV producer Mattie Jameson said: “There are thousands of programmes to choose from on Netflix and Amazon Prime so it’s tougher than ever for schedulers to get viewers to tune in live, especially for shows that air as regularly as soaps.
“Young children have also been brought up now watching their favourite shows via on-demand services, so this trend of missing a show and then bingeing at a later date is likely to continue.”
Mr Jameson claims that while TV executives are being pushed to air “daring and more controversial storylines” in a bid to get viewers tuning in, it does not seem to be having the desired impact on ratings.
According to Ofcom, one in three (34 per cent) UK adults believe that there is too much violence on TV, and a similar amount are angry at the amount of swearing.
Almost half (50 per cent) of those who saw something that offended them on television last year decided to change channel rather than con- tinue watching. More than 200 viewers complained to Ofcom after longstanding Coronation Street character David Platt was drugged and sexually assaulted by another man during an episode of the ITV soap in March that was shown before the 9pm watershed.
And Street boss Kate Oates quit earlier this year after a wave of complaints over storylines that involved rape, murder and sex trafficking.
However, the BBC has been hit hardest by the change in how people watch live TV – the amount of time viewers spent watching BBC One and BBC Two declined by 5.1 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively.