James Bond helps ITV thrash rivals in UK TV ratings war

ITV have thrashed Channel 4 in the Friday night ratings war on British television by wheeling out the annual James Bond marathon. Usually, ITV show Bond films on Bank Holidays or mid-week, but the new Friday night slot has performed even better for the channel.

James Bond proved his weight in gold once again, with Die Another Day winning 6.3 million viewers on Friday night for ITV.

Over on Channel 4, ratings plummeted at 10pm to just 700,000 viewers and a 3% share. At 10.30pm (when the ITV news broke the Bond film for a 30 minute break) they rose to 1.6 million, an 11% share.

A Channel 4 spokesman said: "I don't think a tiny snapshot of just a few hours gives an accurate overview of ratings across the whole channel. We are the only channel that's experiencing growth. We're up 6% year on year.

"We're very proud of our shows and we should get credit for doing something original and challenging, rather than just putting on a Bond movie."

Will 007 prove as successful this week? ITV will be screening "The World Is Not Enough" on Friday 4th March at 8:30pm, as the "Ultimate Bond" season plays the films in reverse order.

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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