4 October 2011 - 7:24am| by | 2 comments

Downton Abbey loses 400,000 viewers as a result of too much advertising

Downton Abbey loses 400,000 viewers through adsDownton Abbey loses 400,000 viewers through ads

ITV’s hit period drama Downton Abbey has lost around 400,000 viewers, apparently as a result of the amount of advertising being shown during it.

The programme, which is now in its second series, drew an audience of 9m viewers for the first episode of the new series, but this has now dropped to 8.7m by episode three, as a result of the amount of sponsorship and adverts being run during it, says the Daily Mail.

The final part of episode three apparently only lasted three minutes, shorted than the advertising break that preceded it.

The Daily Mail also claims that a 30 second advert would cost £100,000 to air during the programme on a Sunday evening.

 An ITV spokesman said: “We followed the same pattern as other 90-minute dramas. We are a commercial broadcaster.”

The piece doesn’t include the number of people watching the programme on-demand, through ITV Player or had recorded it.
 

Comments

Anonymous (not verified)
4 Oct 2011 - 10:51
Anonymous's picture

Like most things on ITV it was over hyped, ridiculous number of Ads and staid storylines.
V+ it and watch later so you can FF the commercials. Surprised there was no helicopter being taken down by the IRA in last weeks episode, or is that next week?

26 Mar 2012 - 10:23
pamta19310's picture
1
comments

loved the series,but i agree about adverts!!! buy the dvd and watch the lot at you leisure. pam x

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