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Researching the charts
The bfi's Information Services were commissioned by producers Objective North to compile the charts featured in Channel 4's Britain's Most Watched TV. This research was carried out using the various television audience measurement data held at the bfi National Library.
Weekly chart listings of the highest-rated programmes have been found in television industry magazines such as Broadcast and its precursor Television Mail for many years. However, to our knowledge research collating this data into decade-by-decade charts has never before been publicly aired.
Audience ratings have been an important aspect of the television industry in Britain since the launch of commercial television in 1955 and the end of the BBC's broadcasting monopoly. Private companies TAM and AC Nielsen were contracted by ITV to produce sample ratings of audiences. This data was sought by advertisers when scheduling slots for their commercials so as to best reach target audiences. These samples also included audiences for BBC programmes, although the BBC did conduct their own research.
As ITV's reach rolled out across the country and the industry grew, ratings became ever more important. In 1964, JICTAR (Joint Industry Committee for Television Advertising Research) was set up to supervise and commission ratings, moving the contract from TAM to AGB in 1968. Eventually the BBC and ITV joined forces on audience ratings, forming BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board) in August 1981. BARB continues to be the industry standard for audience measurement to this day.
Intense broadcasting rivalry in the 1960s and 1970s was reflected in the differing approaches to calculating ratings. JICTAR's figures (published in the television trade press) sampled a selected panel of households using electronic measuring equipment connected to TV sets. These are the most consistent record of ratings for the period and provide the data on which the majority of Britain's Most Watched TV's charts are based. Until 1977, however, these figures were based on numbers of households, not individual viewers. Figures for viewing households can be converted into estimated viewing audience figures by multiplying by an average for the number of viewers per household (a multiple of 2.2 is used for calculation). With big event programming, however - such as the 1966 World Cup final - this is likely to underestimate the number of viewers, as people gathered in public spaces or each other's homes to view. Also, JICTAR ratings give an average across a programme's entirety so are likely to underestimate viewing peaks (such as the marriage ceremony within a lengthy Royal wedding broadcast).
Prior to the advent of BARB, the BBC compiled its own audience research - largely through individual 'phone interviews and viewing diaries - and made data available only selectively. For some of the big event programming featured in the charts, we have incorporated BBC data as it relates to individual viewers rather than households, and hence offers a more accurate picture. For the purposes of Britain's Most Watched TV, figures for rival broadcasters covering the same event have been combined - as it was felt by the production team that the event itself, rather than the broadcaster, was central to the nation's viewing experience.
Britain's Most Watched TV's producers Objective North requested certain criteria for the research methodology and compilation of the charts, and final editorial decisions for the programme rested with Objective North. Following convention, only the highest-rated episode of each show is included per decade. In addition, feature films are excluded. In some cases only the highest-rated example of similar programmes have been included to avoid repetition - for example, the variety shows of the 1960s.
