Young viewers desert ailing ITV

PLANS to revive ITV1 have been dealt a blow by new figures showing that advertisers can now reach a bigger audience of younger people through pay-TV channels such as Sky.

Viewing figures from BARB, the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, reveal a major shift in TV viewing habits. The statistics, obtained by Financial Mail, show advertisers reached more people in the crucial 16-34 age group via channels such as Sky and Channel 4's E4 than through ITV1. So far this year, multi-channel stations have attracted 35.4% of the commercial audience in this age group, while ITV1 took 35.1%.

Younger viewers are vital to advertisers because they have high levels of disposable income. The sector attracts about a third of total TV advertising revenue.

For the first time, most people in Britain have access to a package of channels beyond the five terrestrial stations.

Carlton and Granada, the network's major shareholders, were widely criticised for failing to make ITV1 and ITV2, its digital channel, available on the Sky Digital platform until last November when a £17m deal was signed with BSkyB.

However, the BARB figures show that, at best, ITV1's move to digital has probably only slowed the erosion of its commercial audience share in multi-channel homes. It was also revealed last week that ITV1's peak-time share had fallen by 13% year-on-year to under 33% for the first four months of the year.

Jim Marshall, chief executive of Mediavest, a major buyer of TV airtime, said: 'ITV is in danger of being forgotten by a generation of viewers. It needs to get back to making good programmes. 'It did it in the Nineties with Morse, Cracker, Prime Suspect and Taggart. US networks fought against multi-channels by making programmes such as The West Wing and ER. So it can be done.'

Carlton and Granada said last week that they planned to concentrate on reviving ITV1's fortunes after the collapse of ITV Digital, which cost them more than £1bn. An additional £25m has been earmarked for programming over the next six months on top of the £750m budget for the station.

Mick Desmond, joint managing director of ITV, said: 'We are determined to fight aggressively in multi-channel homes. We will put our tanks on the smaller channels' lawns. We have not marketed to multi-channel viewers as well as we might. That is changing.'

CARLTON and Granada are preparing to buy out their partners in the ITN News channel and take full control of the 24-hour news service.

The move will give ITV its own news provider in the same way as the BBC and Sky control their news operations. The ITN name will disappear from TV screens after nearly 50 years, with the channel rebranded as ITV News.

The news channel is owned by Independent Television News, which in turn is owned by the two ITV companies plus Reuters, United Business Media and Daily Mail & General Trust, owner of The Mail on Sunday, The Daily Mail, the Evening Standard and This Is Money.