The big ITV turn-off

Viewers switched off ITV1 in record numbers over the festive week, according to figures released yesterday.

And for the first time at Christmas, the channel won a smaller audience share than rival satellite and digital channels, which are available in only half of homes.

The figures for December 21 to 28 show that both ITV1 and BBC1 fell in popularity.

Together, they took less than half of the total television audience - their worst showing ever.

ITV1 claimed a dismal 21.47 per cent share, down nearly 3 per cent. The station had just three shows in the Christmas week top ten.

BBC1 lost even more viewers than ITV1. Its share plunged 5.5 per cent to 28.46 per cent.

It did, however, screen seven of the ten top-rated programmes.

Only Fools and Horses led the way with an audience of 16.11million on Christmas Day.

Coronation Street on the same day won third place for ITV1 with 12.33million viewers.

It was a good week for the 200-plus satellite and digital channels. Their audience share was 24.69 per cent - up 10 per cent.

They still have a long way to go though to beat their terrestrial counterparts in individual programmes.

With 1.8million viewers, a Premiership football clash between Middlesbrough and Manchester United was their biggest draw.

Channel 4 and Five both pulled in marginally more viewers, while BBC2 slipped 2.3 per cent.

The terrestrial slump could be explained by the decision - revealed by the Mail on December 17 - to screen a record number of repeats on Christmas Day.

Of the 138 terrestrial programmes shown, only 63 were new. ITV1 showed 16 shows again, compared with four last year.

Julie Kirkbride, Tory culture spokesman, said terrestrial channels-should review their Christmas strategy of showing repeats.

'We now live in a very different age of multimedia,' she warned. 'We need to take these figures very seriously when it comes to matters like charter renewals.'