Further detail: March 2025 TV market detail page | TV Market Update hub.
March 2025: final editorial review
- Protection – ITV – 14.2m
- Britain’s Got Talent – ITV – 13.3m
- Death in Paradise – BBC – 12.7m
- The Apprentice – BBC – 12.5m
- Beyond Paradise – BBC – 12.5m
- The Bay – ITV – 11.0m
- Grace – ITV – 10.7m
- The 1% Club – ITV – 10.7m
- Gladiators – BBC – 10.4m
- This City Is Ours – BBC – 9.6m
March was one of the stronger commercial months in the run because ITV topped the audience list with Protection and also had Britain’s Got Talent, The Bay, Grace and The 1% Club in the top 10. That is a proper buyable spread: drama for attention, entertainment for family reach, and returning formats for dependable frequency.
Campaign activity moved into spring: retail, grocery, finance, travel, telecoms and home categories all had reasons to be visible. The wider context helped those categories. Spring 2025 went on to be record warm and sunny, and March started to shift behaviour towards outdoor, travel and garden-related thinking. The Spring Statement kept household budgets, growth and tax in the news, which made value and confidence messages especially relevant.
The buying read: March was a month to buy before Easter and Q2 demand hardened. It rewarded advertisers who combined ITV peaktime with broader commercial TV and BVOD rather than over-concentrating in a few premium spots.
March 2025: full market review update
Top 10 by audience: Protection ITV 14.2m; BGT ITV 13.3m; Death in Paradise BBC 12.7m; The Apprentice BBC 12.5m; Beyond Paradise BBC 12.5m; The Bay ITV 11.0m; Grace ITV 10.7m; The 1% Club ITV 10.7m; Gladiators BBC 10.4m; This City Is Ours BBC 9.6m.
Campaigns: Protection was the commercial drama standout, with BGT, The Bay, Grace and The 1% Club adding reach. Spring retail, grocery, finance and travel built weight.
Politics, weather and news: record warm/sunny spring conditions began to shape behaviour; the Spring Statement put budgets and growth in the news.
Buying implication: BBC/SVOD peaks show attention but are not spot-buyable; buy ITV, Channel 4, Sky Media, Channel 5, UKTV or BVOD where the audience is
March 2025: market review update
BARB audience context for March, with BBC/SVOD separated from buyable commercial TV.
- Protection (ITV) – commercially buyable context.
- Britain’s Got Talent (ITV) – commercially buyable context.
- Death in Paradise (BBC) – audience context, not spot-buyable.
- The Apprentice (BBC) – audience context, not spot-buyable.
- Beyond Paradise (BBC) – audience context, not spot-buyable.
- The Bay (ITV) – commercially buyable context.
- Grace (ITV) – commercially buyable context.
- The 1% Club (ITV) – commercially buyable context.
- Gladiators (BBC) – audience context, not spot-buyable.
- This City Is Ours (BBC) – audience context, not spot-buyable.
Campaigns and context: ITV drama Protection was the commercial standout, with BGT, The Bay, Grace and The 1% Club giving buyers peaktime reach. Spring retail, grocery, finance and travel campaigns had clear reasons to be on air. The Met Office later described spring 2025 as record warm and sunny, with March setting the tone, while the Spring Statement kept household budgets and growth in the news.
Buying implication: March was a month to bui
March 2025 was a month for looking at TV as a buying market, not just a viewing habit. The useful question for advertisers was where commercial attention could still be bought with confidence, and where demand was likely to push pricing up.
Commercial programming and viewing
March moved the market towards spring trading. Commercially useful attention sat around ITV entertainment and sport, Sky football, Channel 4 factual and lifestyle, and Channel 5 factual series. The value for advertisers was the range of environments: big reach, trusted context, and enough secondary inventory to build frequency without living only in peak.
Advertiser and category movement
Retail, grocery, finance, telecoms, entertainment, travel and home categories had obvious spring reasons to spend. For challenger brands, TV was a way to look bigger and more trusted, especially when paired with search and retail media. For established brands, it helped protect share before the Easter and summer trading periods.
Broadcaster, agency and platform news
By March the commercial conversation was increasingly about full-funnel TV. Agencies wanted evidence that TV drove search, site traffic and sales, while broadcasters were investing in measurement, data partnerships and addressable products to defend budgets against digital video.
Cost of TV and buying conditions
March tends to be less forgiving than January and February because more seasonal money enters the market. Buyers still had options, but the best CPTs were less likely to be found in the obvious high-demand programmes. Lead times mattered: late briefs risked weaker positions or narrower station mixes.
Media buying view
- Use March to bridge brand and response, especially for spring retail and travel.
- Keep premium programmes for fame moments, then use broader commercial TV to create frequency.
- Ask for evidence on incremental reach before shifting too much money from linear into BVOD.