Media & Marketing Emmet OliverThe latest statistics from Nielsen on television viewing patterns for 2004 undermine the often-repeated claim that Irish viewers are not interested in Irish programmes

Eight out of the top 10 rated programmes in 2004 were Irish made. The only exceptions were Eastenders and the Eurovision Song Contest.

Despite these encouraging signs for Irish broadcasters, British channels have not lost their appeal and the BBC in particular is becoming a serious player in Irish television, at least based on its ratings performance.

The figures, included in the report TV Trends 2004 from Nielsen, puts You're A Star at the top of the viewing tables (772,000), followed by the Late, Late Show (763,000) and Killnaskully (753,000).

However, a look through the top 50 programmes will make for bleak reading for TV3 and even RTÉ 2.

TV3 does not manage to get a single programme into the top 10, while RTÉ 2 only managed to get two programmes into the top 10 and these were the hurling and football All-Ireland finals. TV3 had one programme hovering outside the top 10 and that was Coronation Street with 625,000 viewers.

While RTÉ will take comfort from its clean sweep of the top 10, it may be a little concerned at the growing presence in the Irish market of British-based channels.

TV3 is also likely to have the same reaction, despite its shareholding link to ITV.

A section in the report on national market share illustrates the power of the British channels as a group. For example, while TV3 has a market share of 13.5 per cent, the combined market share of BBC 1, BBC 2 and Channel 4 is 14.6 per cent.

Thankfully for TV3 and RTÉ, the BBC does not collect advertising revenue in the Irish market.

In fact, as things stand, BBC channels have a larger share in the Irish market than Sky One and Sky News put together. It doesn't stop there either: BBC 1, for instance, has double the market share of TG4 for example.

Strangely enough, it is Eastenders that is driving a lot of the growth of BBC 1 in the Republic, although sporting events (including matches featuring the England football team) manage to score highly in ratings terms in Ireland. Even Strictly Come Dancing managed to reach an audience of 220,000 in December.

However, as long as the BBC is solely funded by licence fees and does not offer a Republic of Ireland opt-out (unlike Sky), RTÉ and TV3 can safely ignore its growing presence in the Irish market.

Viewers who like BBC channels may not be able to receive them forever in the Republic, unless they go digital. The British government is planning to switch off the analogue signal by 2012.

Channels which broadcast into Ireland like HTV from Wales will lose its analogue signal even earlier, in 2008. So unless the Irish Government develops a digital policy soon, these channels are in danger of vanishing from analogue screens.

No January blues

The Dublin agency Saor Communications points out this week that January is no longer the slack month it used to be for advertisers and their media clients.

Based on published rate cards, the media industry took in a healthy €105 million in revenue during January, which is up 12 per cent when compared to the €94 million posted for January 2004. The motor sector in particular has reported strong figures for the month.

Motor advertisers spent €7.5 million in the media in January, up an impressive 29 per cent on last January.

This year's three biggest spenders by market share were Fiat at 7.4 per cent (€558,000), Nissan at 6.3 per cent (€476,000) and Toyota at 5.4 per cent (€406,000).

While motor advertising is buoyant, telecoms is in even ruder health. It was up 49 per cent in the first month of the year, with spending rising to €8.5 million.

The two giant telecoms brands, O2 and Vodafone, have reversed their respective positions. O2 used to be the biggest spender but, based on published rate cards, Vodafone has now passed it out. In January, Vodafone spent €1.1 million, whereas O2 fell back with a spend of €654,000.

Cinema ad worries

Cinema advertising continues to trail behind TV, press and radio, despite some of the largest brands buying slots before movies in the large multi-screens around the Republic.

However, promoters of cinema advertising will be nervous about news emanating from the United States this week which could allow cinema-goers to skip the advertisements entirely.

According to AFA O'Meara, a bill, currently before lawmakers in Connecticut, may have implications for cinema-goers and advertisers in the Republic.

The bill threatens to force cinema owners to advertise two separate start times in local media. One would alert cinema-goers to when a film actually starts, while the other would alert them to when advertisements and trailers begin.

"A growing area of concern for some cinema advertisers is the relatively long duration of advertisements and trailers which are screened before the actual feature film, so much so that some cinema-goers are delaying their arrival to avoid the ads/trailers," said the agency this week.

If a similar law was to be passed in the Republic, it would clearly damage the profile of cinema advertising in the State.

Emmet Oliver can be contacted at eoliver@irish-times.ie