Published: Wed 12 Dec 2018
ITV main channel is having its highest share of viewing in nearly a decade, consolidated data reveals
Consolidated figures for ITVs main channel (for January-November 2018) released this week show that ITV is having its highest year to date share of viewing in nearly a decade, in what is its third consecutive year of audience share growth.
ITV is the only PSB main channel and family of channels to have grown share year on year in 2018.
Kevin Lygo, ITVs Director of Television said:
2018 has been a fantastic year for us - England's World Cup clashes on ITV and Love Island were the most talked about TV of the summer, and this autumn, I'm a Celebrity has broken records in what is its 18th series. All three have brought in huge audiences, including amongst younger viewers, who have been watching these shows in their millions. ITV's trend busting performance in 2018 is also a story about every aspect of our schedule working harder, and the amazing teams who work on our soaps, our entertainment shows, our daily daytime programmes and quizzes - who continue to deliver talked about TV that stands out in the schedule. And in this world of hundreds of content choices, we have also launched new shows and in 2018 we've grown our share of viewing to become the most watched channel for 16-34s, and the most watched channel in peak time for the first time since 2013 .
The share of viewing increase has been driven by strong performances across the schedule.
I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! had its highest ever launch in 2018, in the programme's 18th series, with 13.7 million viewers based on consolidated data. I'm A Celebrity has built on the success of other ratings hits for ITV's family of channels in 2018, including Saturday Night Takeaway, and Vera, which also averaged their highest ratings ever this year. ITV's World Cup coverage, which included Englands semi-final against Croatia, became the most watched football match on a single channel ever with an average audience of 24.3million viewers from kick off until final whistle, and This Morning achieved its most watched episode since records go back, with its coverage of HRH Princess Eugenie's Wedding consolidating at 3.2million viewers.
The Voice returned in 2018 with a new coach, Olly Murs, joining Tom Jones, Will i am and Jennifer Hudson, and was up year on year by 300k viewers and 3.5 share points. A fantastic week of Britain's Got Talent live shows were rounded off by 10 million viewers watching Lost Voice Guy become the first comedian to win Britain's Got Talent.
Entertainment shows Dancing on Ice and Who Wants to be a Millionaire delivered slot boosting performances and factual hits included The Queen's Green Planet averaging 6.4 million viewers and a 25.3% share, making it ITVs highest audience for a factual programme this year, and new series Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip which pulled in 5.1million viewers and a 22.5% share, achieved the highest volume for any factual series on ITV since Long Lost Family in the summer of 2013.
ITV's News at Ten bulletin has delivered its highest average share since 2011; the only news bulletin to grow in this slot, and ITV's Early Evening News programme is the only early evening news programme to achieve volume growth, year on year.
ITV had stand out success with stripped drama series, including Trauma starring Adrian Lester and John Simm, and Innocent starring Lee Ingleby and Hermione Norris, which are two out of the three highest rating new drama series on TV this year, based on seven day consolidated data.
Event driven scheduling has also boosted ITV's share year on year, with highlights including The British Soap Awards live, Soccer Aid for Unicef, The Grand National, and of course The World Cup, ITV showed the two most watched games of the whole tournament. England v Colombia averaged 20.1million viewers across the match with 24.4million at its peak as Eric Dier scored the winning penalty. Englands semi-final against Croatia became the most watched football match on a single channel ever, and during extra-time, the match had a peak of 26.6million viewers. This rises to 27.5million if you include non-TV viewing making it the most watched TV event since 1997. ITV main channel had the highest average match audience (7.3million viewers) of the two broadcasters, and this average was up on ITVs matches in 2014 by 1.2million viewers.
In 2018 ITV was the home of the two most watched soaps for the first time since records go back, with Coronation Street on top, and Emmerdale moving up into second place. Highlights included Emmerdale enjoying its highest weekly share since Camerons siege in the Woolpack back in 2013, for the week this May that included Charity's flashback episode, which averaged a 38% share across its five episodes. For Coronation Street highlights include Good Fridays 8:30pm episode scoring the highest rating in this slot in more than 4 years when 9.4million viewers tuned in to see Phelan confess his string of crimes to Eileen at the lighthouse. Across that week, Coronation Street delivered an impressive 40% share among 16-34s, the soap's highest share for this demographic since just before the tram crash in 2010. On top of this, Aidan's suicide storyline bought in our highest share among Men 16-34 since 2004 (53%) and we also recorded our strongest share for this 9pm stripped week since 2013.
Good Morning Britain continues to grow in share and so far in 2018 is averaging an 18.7% share, with eight out of the ten best ever Good Morning Britain shares falling within 2018. Lorraine is averaging an 18.0% share of viewing and Loose Women 13.9%, for both the best share performance since 2013.
The Chase has had its best year ever in both share and volume. Weekday teatime episodes
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/07/2026
New appointments to Screen Australia board 7 July 2026
The Albanese Labor Government has made new appointments to the Screen Australia board.
Dr Tania Chamber...
07/07/2026
The right team. The right time.' How The Killings at Parrish Station stuck t...
07/07/2026
Berklee College of Music Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's...
07/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists train the immune system to make antibodies against numerous HIV strains Preclinical findings mark progress toward a long-sought vacc...
06/07/2026
Long-developed relationships and informal access, three production models, and c...
06/07/2026
The deal follows Lumine's recent acquisition of Synamedia's video-networ...
06/07/2026
This former SportsCenter producer is shaping local-team studio coverage to surro...
06/07/2026
IMS Productions and FOX Sports deployed more than 100 cameras, 32 onboard feeds,...
06/07/2026
Lumine Group Inc. has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Video Network Business from Synamedia. The business will operate as a standalone compan...
06/07/2026
NASCAR has announced a content and commercial partnership with Motorsport Network, a motorsports and automotive media platform, to distribute NASCAR original co...
06/07/2026
Versant Media Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Full Swing, a sports technology company, from Bruin Capital and a group of minority investor...
06/07/2026
DAZN has announced global broadcast rights to 3ICE, a professional hockey format featuring three skaters and a goalkeeper per side, with no power plays or offsi...
06/07/2026
Bundle gains 100 new synths & more
Synth Anthology 5 the largest and most feature-packed edition of UVI's hardware synth emulation bundle, bringing toge...
06/07/2026
Available now via free firmware update
MOTU have just announced that three of their popular audio interfaces now boast official Milan Certification. The 16A...
06/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Co...
06/07/2026
The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the ...
06/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
06/07/2026
Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice Pre...
06/07/2026
Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development
Brie Clayton July 6, 2026
0 Comments
The strategic new appointment supports...
06/07/2026
Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve
Michael Cioni July 6, 2026
0 Comments
This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup your...
06/07/2026
Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro
Colin Smith July 6, 2026
0 Comments
Here I showcase the innovative automatic caption translation f...
06/07/2026
Flavor's First Ever Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Execu...
06/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might think...
06/07/2026
Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with ...
06/07/2026
Open source AI has shown how quickly developers can innovate when models, data a...
06/07/2026
Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy
intellisphereinsyght2026
6 July Written By Suzanne Costello
Sydney, Australia - 06 July 2026 T...
06/07/2026
Monday 6 July 2026
Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a ...
06/07/2026
Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...
06/07/2026
Nations have long invested in domestic infrastructure to advance their economies, protect and use their data, and take advantage of technology opportunities in ...
06/07/2026
Every year, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) reveals where thousands of AI researchers have decided to put their work.
This year's ...
06/07/2026
A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained
What happened to Ke...
05/07/2026
We've gone to another level of integrating the graphics into the set architecture' - Zac Fields, SVP, Graphic Technology and Integration, FOX Sports...
05/07/2026
Browser-based and desktop apps available
Digital Sunset Studios have been busy working on an interesting project: a free software tool that provides compute...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
Published: Wed 12 Dec 2018
