Lay of the Land—Ireland Irish 4 to 14s flock to RTE With a newly launched preschool channel and topranked market shares, Ireland’s national pubcaster is amping up its commitment to kids entertainment Market share Children 4 to 14 RTE 1 12.6% RTE 2 8.2% TV3 7.1% BBC1 2.8% Nickelodeon 2.2% 3E 1.9% Channel 4 1.7% SKY1 1.7% UTV 1.5% BBC2 1.1% TG4 1.0% Peppa Pig, airing on Nick Jr., was the top-ranked show with Ireland’s four to six demo in March Eurodata TV Worldwide is a French company specializing in TV audience ratings research and market intelligence that offers TV data as well as expertise and insight into the performance of TV shows in more than 90 countries. Ratings information is provided directly by research institutes in each country, which, like Eurodata’s parent company Médiamétrie, measure daily television audience ratings. For more information, contact sales manager Jacques Balducci (jbalducci@eurodatatv.com, 33-1-4758-9434). For December 2012, Ireland’s RTE2, which airs most of the top-performing children’s programs in the country across its daily sked, gathered an average audience of 7,200 children in the four to 14 demo and held a market share of 8.2%. However, the country’s high percentage of homes with satellite (63%) and digital TV (97%) means kids are accessing content on dedicated pay-TV channels such as Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. (The Nickelodeon bouquet, however, remains the only measured group of specialty children’s channels in the country.) Despite the cancellation of BBC’s two free-to-air children’s blocks last December due to low ratings, the country’s TV market for kids is undergoing changes that, according to Eurodata TV research manager Johanna Karsenty, may boost competition. On April 15, RTE debuted RTEjr, its own dedicated free-to-air preschool channel. And generalist channel TV3, which currently offers no children’s programming, has plans in the works to launch its own dedicated channel, 3Kids. Karsenty says it remains to be seen how the launch of RTEjr will affect RTE2’s lineup. “RTE2 may become more exclusive to older kids shows, with RTEjr focusing on the seven and under set.” For specialty channels, Nick’s December 2012 share of kids four to 14 sat at 2.2%, with NickToons and Nick Jr. slightly behind at 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively. The top three highest-ranked shows among children ages four to six in March were: Peppa Pig, which scored a 24.2% share (approximately 17,900 kids) on Nick Jr. with its best-performing episode; RTE2’s 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and Ben 10 Ultimate Alien on Irish-language channel TG4. Beating Nickelodeon in market share among children four to 14 is RTE2. Kid viewers have helped turn its after-school block into the best-performing part of its sked, with The Simpsons at number one (35,300 kids/19.9% share for March 2013, ranked by best-performing episode), followed by Victorious (26,600/16.9%) and Lab Rats (26,000/18.5%). Additional international live-action series including The Suite Life on Deck, iCarly and House of Anubis populate the top 10 list. And cartoons such as Scooby-Doo, Sylvester and Tweety and Penguins of Madagascar also place in the upper ranks of the ratings. Though children’s programming dominates, kids in Ireland are also watching soap operas. Shows such as Coronation Street, Eastenders and RTE1’s local Irish production Fair City are among the most popular. –Jeremy Dickson 26 May/June 2013
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