Vote 2005: Friday's news ratings

Each day during the election campaign, Digital Spy will be tracking the performance of the major news broadcasters. Check in daily for a roundup of the latest ratings for the terrestrial news programmes and the rolling news channels.

Overnight data for Friday, April 29 follows.

Terrestrials: Summary

With Nicholas Parsons at the helm, Have I Got News For You pulled in 5.28 million (25.5%) at 9pm to rank as the fourth most-watched show of the day overall.

For the second day running, BBC One's 10pm bulletin was beaten by ITV's Early Evening News, albeit by a miniscule 4 million (26.5%) versus 3.99 million (21.6%).

UKIP's election broadcast reached an aggregate audience of 6.23 million across the evening.

News Channels: Summary

News 24 enjoyed a particularly strong Friday, averaging 38,000 viewers and a 0.92% audience share between 10am and 7pm. The broadcaster managed to increase its audience hour-on-hour during the afternoon to reach a peak of 72,000 (0.84%) at 6pm.

Sky News, meanwhile, could only attain a limp 30,000 (0.8%) average. The late edition of The Boulton Factor was a shining star in the schedule, however, with an average of 52,000 (0.64%).

News channels: Primetime Breakdown

7pm - 8pm
Sky News (The Boulton Factor): 18,000 (0.16%)
News 24 (BBC News / Campaign Talk): 12,000 (0.11%)

8pm - 9pm
Sky News: 9,000 (0.07%)
News 24: 31,000 (0.24%)

9pm - 10pm
Sky News (Nine O'Clock News / Sky News): 15,000 (0.11%)
News 24: 21,000 (0.15%)

10pm - 11pm
Sky News (Sky News At Ten / Sky News): 25,000 (0.21%)
News 24 (BBC News / Business Today): 28,000 (0.25%)

11pm - 12am
Sky News (The Boulton Factor): 52,000 (0.64%)
News 24 (BBC News / Hardtalk Extra): 51,000 (0.64%)

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com