BBC wins British battle for ratings

Comedy favourites Only Fools and Horses helped push the BBC to victory in the festive television ratings war in Britain, preliminary viewing figures released today showed.

The latest adventures of Del Boy and Rodney Trotter pulled in 15.5 million viewers, making it the top show on Christmas Day.

This was ahead of the 14 million who tuned into the 8.30pm edition of EastEnders and the 11.8 million people who watched ITV’s Coronation Street.

Seven of the top ten rated shows were screened on BBC1, according to figures from the independent Broadcasters’ Audience Research Bureau (BARB).

Throughout Christmas Day BBC1 had a 34.8% share of viewers, rising to 45.5% during peak hours compared to ITV’s 24% overall and 29.9% peak hour share, according to the figures.

On Christmas Eve BBC1 had a 28.1% audience share compared with ITV’s 20.2%. During peak hours BBC1 boasted a 32.1% share against ITV’s 26.8%.

BBC 1’s controller Lorraine Heggessey said: “Providing great entertainment for all the family at Christmas is an important public service.

“It’s great to see the audience throw open its doors to BBC faces in a range of original home-grown programmes.”

The Top 10 Programmes

1. Only Fools and Horses – BBC1 15.5 million

2. EastEnders (8.30pm) – BBC1 14 million

3. Coronation Street – ITV 11.8 million

4. EastEnders (6pm) – BBC1 11.4 million

5 = My Family – BBC1 8.3 million

5 = Emmerdale – ITV 8.3 million

7. BBC News (5.45pm) – BBC1 7.8 million

8. Queen’s Speech – BBC1 6.5 million

9. Posh and Becks Big Impression – BBC1 6.5m

10. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Celebrity – ITV 6.3m