Royal speech tops Christmas TV ratings

THE Queen’s speech topped the Christmas Day television ratings as a total of nearly 7.5 million viewers tuned into watch her festive broadcast across the BBC and ITV.

The message, in which Her Majesty reflected on atrocities across the world this year, was watched by 6.1m people on the BBC and 1.3m on ITV. The last ever episode of Downton Abbey drew the highest viewing figures of any single programme, with an audience of 6.9m.

The ITV programme, in which much-loved characters got their happy endings, attracted a 30 per cent share of all viewers on Friday night.

Strictly Come Dancing ’s all-star Christmas special came in third with 6.5m, making it the BBC’s mostwatched Christmas Day programme. The afternoon’s animated adaptation of

Stick Man, a children’s favourite by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, attracted 6.4m viewers, as did the Irish sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys . Altogether, eight out of the top 10 programmes were broadcast by the BBC.

The tradition of families settling down together in front of the television seems to be on the wane.

Audiences across the board were down for Christmas Day 2015, with big hitters pulling in disappointing ratings.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special, which attracted 6.3m viewers in 2014, only registered 5.8m this year.

It was also a poor year for the soaps, with Coronation Street ’s 5.9m beating

EastEnders ’ 5.7m in a hollow victory. Factors for the long-term decline in ratings include the increasing number of viewers using catch-up services to timetable their own viewing.

It is expected that most of the ratings will rise by a million or more when recording devices, iPlayer and other catch-up services are taken into consideration.

Viewers’ attention is also being distracted by social media and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.