H&A's highest ever viewing figures in the UK.

[nenehcherry2]

19 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

At the time the ratings for EastEnders was combined with the week showing and the weekend omnibus. I know Neighbours and H&A were combined showings of the afternoon and evening repeat on the same day but if you took out the EE omnibus, the figures for each single week episode of EE and it would have been behind both Neighbours and H&A. I think a single episode of EE got about 12-13 million. Then the omnibus at the weekend bumped it to about 18-19 million as calculated.

 

100%! ALL shows' ratings really dropped into 1994 and 1995 - very proportionate with one another. So, even though H&A was at a low of 8M - 10M in the truly amazing 1995/6 period (Aus pace), that was also a time when EE, Corrers, Neighbours, Emmerdale etc had dropped by a similar %, in spite of most being at high points (Corrie & Neighbours aside perhaps in 95!). So it was NO reflection of the UK audience's preferences on the H&A format (on the contrary, the consensus is that the show got better from the early/mid 95 period, airing in the UK from about Summer 95); it's just that less folks were watching terrestrial telly from 1994/5...

It's not been discussed before but I believe that two important & interrelated (though not interdeo developments catalysted the above trend (PS you were quite right to also highlight the relevance of the early 90s recession):-

- MULTICHANNEL TELEVISION: Launch of Sky's Multichannels package of 1st September 1993 across the UK. Whilst some folk in the UK had access to Satelite television in prior to this (especially after the BSB & Sky merger in 1990-1), Multichannels really ramped up the market penetration of Sky. This started right from Sept 93 but sign ups were at an all time high in Summer 94. By 1995, the number of Sky subscribers had TRIPLED versus Summer 1993. My own family signed up in Christmas 93 & recall our viewing of terrestrial shows progressively declining from then.

Simultaneously, more Cable TV lines were laid down than ever in the 1993 - 6 period. Again, most larger cities had cable by 1992/3 but the installation hit the mid-sized towns especially in the mid 90s.

Between these two developments, a much larger proportion UK market suddenly had a HUGE choice of channels to pick from, some very age or genre specific (e.g. Nickolodeon airing kids and teens shows, Sky Soap airing some new imports). Whilst a lot of content was re-runs (UK Gold, 50% owned by Thames, wanted to air H&A from the beginning from Nov 92 but ITV, annoyed with Thames' behaviour in response to their loss of the ITV London franchise, blocked this), there was a fair amount of fresh content. All shows on the four terrestrial channels were under threat - H&A was no exception to that threat. And had to fight ever harder to win viewers of their shows - as well as to keep maximise their advertising revenue & profitability as high as possible (the cost of TV advertising space also declined due to this marketplace dilution, along with increased labour costs for production).

Much further down the line...

The launch of digital on all three formats in late 1998 then accentuated said threat to whole other level of threat! Many kids, older teens etc suddenly were watching genre / age specific programmes and on their own TV sets (see below). This also shepherded the new "tween" market with Disney Channel etc.  With simultaneous developments in H&A's other key markets (Aus, Ireland, etc), I believe that played a part in the show's new strategy of experimenting with 4 regulars in the 12-14 age group from 2000 (Duncan, Jade, Kristy & Nick) - to win more of that tween audience. This later development also coincided with the dot com boom (i.e. watching telly itself was under threat from the more futuristic experience of "surfing" the internet, as we put it at the time - way before Gen Netflix merged those two life pleasures).

- MORE TVs IN ONE HOUSEHOLD: less data to chronicle the when, the how & the what but the early-to-mid 90s period really saw a ramp up in multiple TVs in one home - at least from my own observations at the time & shared recollections with my social network. Telly viewing went from a family affair to a more individual experience. I had my own TV from about mid 1994. Gone were the days of Dads switching off H&A for the news, at least for many of us. Whilst this was a less direct threat versus multichannel (arguably an opportunity), it meant that shows had to really evolve their content & harness more specified demographics versus before. 

Both of the above, in combination with the end of the recession / prequel to the dot com boom (i.e. less of the audience available to watch) would have had unquestionable impact on viewing figures for all terrestrial series, regardless of quality. 

[James Martin]

1994 was a bit of a boom year for the soaps to be honest.  Emmerdale was going through its revamp and by the end of the year turned The Big Two into The Big Three.  Coronation Street and Brookside were doing a brisk trade as ever.  Elsewhere, EastEnders got a third weekly episode and the two Australian soaps did serious numbers.

BARB figures have been on the wane for years as new tech has entered the market.  Channel 4/S4C, VCRs, Sky/Cable, Channel 5, Digital and Streaming have all increased choice but diluted the audience.  The other issue is fewer people actually watch programmes linearly, or even live, now.  Soaps definitely lend themselves to binge watching; the real example of this is the abandonment of the ITV/BBC agreement not to show soaps against one another, but now Emmerdale and EastEnders air head-to-head because it's no longer an issue.  I thought it was particularly telling that in the wake of the Queen's death, the BBC were exceptionally scattergun in when they aired EastEnders (one night they said it would air at 8:30pm on BBC Two only for it to be bought forward to 8pm on BBC One at the 11th hour) knowing that it didn't really matter when they put it out (I believe it was possible to stream that day's intended episode from 7:30pm on the night of transmission, regardless of what happened on linear television?)

The other effect of streaming is those second television sets, like the kitchen portable, don't exist anymore.  One is more likely to have a tablet to "watch television" on.

I imagine the Australian market isn't that different, and that's why Seven Network are very random with their scheduling of Home & Away; easier to binge watch on 7+ when you've got time to do so.