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'Quantum of Solace' pulls in 4.7m views for UK terrestrial premiere

JamesPageJamesPage Administrator, Moderator, Director
edited March 2011 in News Posts: 1,380
The 2008 James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" took over two years to make it to the free-to-air small screen in the UK, but for national broadcaster ITV1, it was worth the wait. Bond boosted ITV to the top of the Saturday night prime-time ratings average with 22.4% of the national audience.

Daniel Craig's second outing as 007 pulled in an impressive average of 4.727 million viewers for ITV between 9pm and 11pm, which was an audience share of 23.3% during <a href="http://mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=9332&catid=6&t=mi6&s=news">the broadcast</a> on Saturday 26th March 2011. A further 232,000 watched 'time shifted' within 24 hours.

Elsewhere, BBC1's long-running flagship drama "Casualty" pulled in 5.42 million (24.1%) between 9pm and 9:50pm beating Bond in the first hour and was followed by the BBC News with 4.15m (19.8%), but then "Live at The Apollo" dropped to 2.64m (14.7%) between 10:10pm and 11pm when more people were tuned to 007.

BBC2's new show "Goldie's Band: by Royal Appointment" (the DJ appeared in "The World Is Not Enough" as Mr Bullion) was watched by just 500,000, and Channel 4's "Peter Kay's Britain's Got the Pop Factor" scoped 1.32m (6.5%).

Back in September 2009, <a href="http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=7927&catid=2&t=mi6&s=news">"Casino Royale"</a> made its terrestrial broadcast debut ITV1 and landed 5.1m and 3.5m for the first and second hours respectively (ITV News was broadcast in between). The ratings for "Casino Royale" were a disappointment to the broadcaster, but many attributed this to the long wait from its theatrical release, ITV's decision to broadcast in 'pan & scan' format rather than widescreen, and the immense popularity of the DVD.

Comments

  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,356
    Not bad I suppose and near enough on par with the last one. ITV must be pleased. Thanks for posting @JamesPage I did wonder how many viewers it would gain.
  • CoH_GHOST_007CoH_GHOST_007
    Posts: 303
    I was going to watch it on ITV1 (as i did with Casino Royale's ITV1 showing), but it was a whole hour away, so i just put the dvd on of QoS, great way to pass time :')
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    I ended up watching it,as soon as the PTS came on i was hooked,and from what i saw ITV didn't cut any of it at all which was pleasing.
    I was interested to know the viewing figures as well so thanks from me too @jamespage .
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,356
    That's one thing I forgot to ask, ITV's showing of the film. Did they cut any of Quantum Of Solace at all? If not, well done them.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    No it was uncut as far as i was concerned.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,356
    Well done ITV then! Having no news was also very good of them. Maybe they're turning over a new leaf?...
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Mmm i doubt that but QoS is a perfect film to fit in for the 9-11 slot,great for ITV to put on.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,356
    They should have waited for one of the bank holidays though, there are plenty coming up.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    I agree,and said that to my wife the other day : they have Good Friday/Easter Saturday/Easter Day/Easter Monday/The Royal Wedding/May Day and the Spring bank Holiday all coming up !!!
  • St_GeorgeSt_George Shuttling Drax's lovelies to the space doughnut - happy 40th, MR!
    edited April 2011 Posts: 1,699
    @samuel001 @barryt007 Indeed. It's only three months since Crimbo; why on earth ITV didn't put it on over the festive period as a big seasonal premiere really is anyone's guess. They don't bother with any of them anymore. Weird. I mean, the Beeb must still catch a decent number of viewers from them at Crimbo by doing that. I mean, even Sky does it with its tentpole premieres on its movie channels.

    Anyhoo, yup, I too ended up watching QOS on Saturday night - what with me doing nothing else that night and no Match Of The Day on. Enjoyed it too, must say... :)
  • ShardlakeShardlake Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
    edited April 2011 Posts: 4,043
    Maybe it's just because Bond doesn't rule my world anymore and hasn't for sometime but there is something a little pointless about watching a film on TV when you own it on DVD or Blu ray. When I see a film I already own on the TV my automatic reaction is to switch it off or turn over, you already have a superior version of the film why watch it on one the UK's worst terrestrial channels just because it's Bond!

    I remember a time when VHS was in it's infancy and not everyone owned a machine and the sell thru market barely existed, then watching a Bond film on telly was an event, before VHS you only had the times it was on and they only showed them once or maybe twice a year and waiting for OHMSS to come around seem like an eternity. It's clearly not the case anymore, I'm assuming that most people here are Bond fans and most likely have the series on DVD at least so why oh why TV? A Bond film turning up on ITV is not an event anymore, I'm just flabergasted that some of you get all wet over such a thing anymore!

    You clearly have far too much spare time on your hands, I know I don't!
  • connerybondconnerybond
    Posts: 163
    Watched with my son. We have had the DVD and watched it many times in the past.
  • JamesPageJamesPage Administrator, Moderator, Director
    edited April 2011 Posts: 1,380
    @Shardlake I think a lot of it has to do with sharing the experience, knowing millions are all watching a Bond film at the exact same time - it's a weird phenomenon but I've heard many people in recent years put this down as the reason they watch even when they have the DVD or bluray.

    ...and then there are those who watch just to see what gets cut or how ITV are going to **** it up :-))
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited April 2011 Posts: 13,356
    Final viewing figures for Quantum Of Solace will be released tomorrow. I'll be sure to post them.

    Meanwhile, here are the final numbers for the other films that have their data available, all from BARB:

    Wednesday 10th March 1999 - GoldenEye: 13.23 million
    Wednesday 13th October 1999 - Tomorrow Never Dies:11.86 million
    Wednesday 14th November 2001 - The World Is Not Enough: 9.80 million
    Wednesday 27th October 2004 - Die Another Day: 7.55 million
    Saturday 19th September 2009 - Casino Royale: 4.82 million
    Saturday 26th March 2011 - Quantum Of Solace: 4.63 million

    As the years have gone by TV viewership has dropped a lot, not just for the Bond films.
  • CoH_GHOST_007CoH_GHOST_007
    Posts: 303
    blockquote>Quoting Samuel001: As the years have gone by TV viewership has dropped a lot, not just for the Bond
    films.

    Yeh, it's probably because of their timing schedueles, or (more realistically) thatyou can already get them on blu-ray or dvd for only a couple of quid (I got DAD for only 99p the other year :D)
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,356
    Quantum Of Solace was watched by 4.63 million viewers, so that's just below Casino Royale. ITV must be quite pleased.
  • JamesPageJamesPage Administrator, Moderator, Director
    Posts: 1,380
    @Samual001 thanks for digging up the official figures. I smell an article in the near future. It's a shame there isn't another long-running film series we could use to benchmark against, but I guess everyone is fully aware that network TV viewing is on the decline.
  • RunawayRunaway
    Posts: 24
    Maybe I haven't been paying attention but I don't remember seeing the brief (blink and you'd miss it) scene when Bond is driving a Volvo S40 from the airport to the opera house. However this scene was included during the televised version, I hadn't noticed it before.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited April 2011 Posts: 13,356
    Quoting JamesPage: It's a shame there isn't another long-running film series we could use to
    benchmark against
    Or even more final figures out there for older Bond films. Licence To Kill was first shown in 1994 which is too old for BARB. As for comparing to other franchises there is no even comparision out there for the length of time you'd want to see data for.

    Interesting to note the switch from Wednesday to Saturday for the first showings of the films. I wonder why ITV did this?

    As for an article, why not update or amend this one:

    http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/history_bond_on_tv.php3?t=&s=movies&id=01689

    Also The Spy Who Loved Me and Diamonds Are Forever are the third and fourth most watched premieres of films in the UK, with of course Live And Let Die as number one. I'd love to know where the others rank and what they got...
  • barryt007barryt007
    edited April 2011 Posts: 19,339
    Quoting Runaway:
    Maybe I haven't been paying attention but I don't remember
    seeing the brief (blink and you'd miss it) scene when Bond is driving a Volvo
    S40 from the airport to the opera house. However this scene was included during
    the televised version, I hadn't noticed it before.
    Yes this scene is on the DVD and also was on the TV premiere.
  • CaptainArthursCaptainArthurs
    Posts: 39
    My condolences to anyone who sat through that rubbish for the first time!
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