Good Morning Britain has fewer viewers than Daybreak, still getting trounced by BBC Breakfast

Good Morning Britain fails to outshine Daybreak, one year on

ITV breakfast show pulls in fewer viewers than its predecessor, despite £1.5m revamp and hiring of Susanna Reid



Almost a year on since the £1.5m launch of Good Morning Britain figures show that ITV’s new breakfast show has pulled in fewer viewers than its much-maligned predecessor Daybreak.

And despite high-profile signings such as Susanna Reid from the BBC, GMB is still being regularly beaten by rival BBC Breakfast.

The ITV show has averaged about 560,000 viewers since it launched last April, compared with just more than 600,000 for Daybreak during the same time period the previous year.

In comparison BBC1’s Breakfast pulls in around 1.5 million on weekdays, even though some predicted it would suffer when it moved from the capital to Salford in Greater Manchester three years ago.

Although ITV originally said GMB would break new ground by being more news-focused, and comparisons with Good Morning America were made, the show appears to have moved back more into what one industry expert called, “the GMTV-comfort zone.”

Originally launching with four presenters around a desk and 794,000 viewers, increasingly it has reverted to type by focusing more on two presenters and interviews on the sofa.

Sources say that despite executives visiting the US to study the success of Good Morning America, GMB has become more like the old GMTV in a bid to recapture the axed breakfast brand’s heyday.

Perhaps it is no surprise as the editor and top executives running and in overseeing the show are all former GMTV staff and just six of the 19 key on-screen presenters, editors and reporters are non-GMTV.

At the time it went off air in 2009 having been axed following damaging evidence that it had deceived viewers more than £35m-worth of phone-in competitions, GMTV had about a 24% audience share.

In contrast, GMB has averaged just more than 15% in the year to the end of March, although the broadcasting landscape has changed a lot in six years with more people getting their news from social media.

It is understood that ITV has said it will give GMB another year to give it more time to build, rather than go through another expensive relaunch.

Poaching Reid – who is thought to earn about £300,000 a year – did not come cheap, neither did the new set, graphics and branding.

ITV also said that for the first quarter of 2015, ITV’s breakfast show has been up year on year for the first time in 10 years.

A spokeswoman said: “Ratings for the first quarter of 2015 show that Good Morning Britain is up compared to the same period last year and March saw our highest full month audience figures yet.”

She added: “ITV is pleased with the show and confident about it going forward. It is here to stay.”

ITV also said that for the first quarter of 2015, ITV’s breakfast show has been up year on year for the first time in 10 years.

It has continued experimenting to boost ratings such as bringing in Piers Morgan while Ben Shephard is on leave for a week, although overnight figures show audiences have remained broadly the same.

However, Morgan’s arrival brought some publicity to the show – not least when a guest swore during Morgan’s debut on Monday – which has more often than not hit the headlines more over Reid’s outfits or wardrobe malfunctions than the content of the show itself.

Breakfast is too big for ITV for it to fail. Despite lower audiences it continues to be lucrative for ITV with competitions and advertising bringing in key revenue.

Accounts filed for ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Ltd, which include Daybreak and Lorraine Kelly’s series Lorraine, show that in the year to 31 December 2013 turnover – which comes mostly from television advertising revenue and money from interactive services – was £67m, while operating profit was £8.1m.

There was also some good news for the new-look GMB recently after it won international set of the year.

The financials for 2012 and 2013 seem to show that no matter what the content is on-screen, advertisers have continued to book slots around the show, even when Daybreak, was going through its much-derided “purple phase” - it launched with purple branding before switching in 2012 to the more traditional yellow associated with numerous breakfast programmes.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/a ... na-reid-tv

Spindash wrote:Cannot believe this isn't a KKLEIN thread.

Falsey wrote:you used to be cool sok

DML wrote:To be fair it DOES have a great set.

D_C wrote:Bring back The Big Breakfast

mrspax wrote:I genuinely can't understand why or how people watch telly at that time of the morning. First thing in the morning is for getting up, getting ready, shoving a few bits of brekkie in your gob and going to work. Accompanied by the radio. Where people find time to sit and watch telly is beyond me,

Saint of Killers wrote:Yup. Sans the busty mature broad giving me a heads-up on the weather.

D_C wrote:Bring back The Big Breakfast

Mafro wrote:

mrspax wrote:I genuinely can't understand why or how people watch telly at that time of the morning. First thing in the morning is for getting up, getting ready, shoving a few bits of brekkie in your gob and going to work. Accompanied by the radio. Where people find time to sit and watch telly is beyond me,

I watch morning TV while sitting at the table eating breakfast. Pretty simple.