Culture

Coronation street; ITV Profits Double but Advertising Stalls

by liamssoft | July 11, 2011 at 03:00 am

308 views | 12 Recommendations | 2 comments

27th July 2011

The broadcaster behind Coronation Street, saw half-year profits almost double to £181 million, thanks in part to years of cutting overheads. Group revenues rose only 4% to £1.03 billion as advertising went into reverse after Easter.

Ad sales plunged 9% in May and 14% in June - in line with expectations - as brands cut spending and there were tough comparatives with last year's World Cup. Across the half-year, ITV's advertising was up 2%, slightly behind the wider market. Chief executive Adam Crozier insisted: "We expect to outperform the TV advertising market across the whole of the year."

11th July 2011

Ratings Collapse as Viewers Switch Off

Britain's most popular comical soap Coronation Street, has had television viewers entertained since 9th December 1960 with its 3 days a week of daily Storylines of Manchester's working classes, recently changed writers and introduced ex EastEnders leading lady Michelle Collins.

Not being much of a TV fan myself, I used to occasionally watch the Catch Up version about once every two weeks.

But this week when I started to view it I became very bored, and after 10 minuets of listening to the mumblings of some newly arrived cast members, I thought, that’s it, that's the last time I'm going to watch this nonsense.

Figures for ITV1's flagship soap slumped by 29 per cent from 10.4million at the end of May to 7.4million last week. More than a quarter of viewers have switched off amid complaints about outlandish storylines.

Actors and viewers have criticised the move away from the show's roots, depicting the gritty reality of life in a typical working class street in Manchester, and replacing it with black comedy.