This is the detail companion page for Latest In The TV Market: January 2025. It expands the January 2025 view with BARB programme data, commercial-channel highlights, market context, public campaign signals, UK news and the next relevant TV planning watch.
Data basis: BARB Weekly Top 50 Shows, 7-day consolidated viewing, using all populated BARB weeks overlapping January 2025: 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025, 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025, 20 Jan 2025 – 26 Jan 2025, 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025. The programme tables dedupe repeated strands, so soaps and returning series appear once using their strongest audience across the included weeks. Because BARB reports weekly, some selected weeks cross a calendar-month boundary.
Top 10 Programmes
The strongest deduped programme strands across the available January 2025 BARB weeks were led by The Traitors, Call the Midwife, Death in Paradise. This is a monthly best-of view rather than a list of every high-rating episode.
| Rank | Programme | Broadcaster | Audience | Best Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Traitors | BBC | 9.98m | 20 Jan 2025 – 26 Jan 2025 |
| 2 | Call the Midwife | BBC | 7.34m | 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025 |
| 3 | Death in Paradise | BBC | 6.36m | 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025 |
| 4 | Silent Witness | BBC | 6.31m | 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025 |
| 5 | Playing Nice | ITV | 6.27m | 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025 |
| 6 | The Apprentice | BBC | 5.85m | 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025 |
| 7 | The Traitors: Uncloaked | BBC | 5.71m | 20 Jan 2025 – 26 Jan 2025 |
| 8 | Michael McIntyre's Big Show | BBC | 5.57m | 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025 |
| 9 | Gladiators | BBC | 5.38m | 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025 |
| 10 | The 1% Club | ITV | 5.04m | 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025 |
Top 15 Commercial-Channel Programmes
With BBC entries removed, the leading commercial environments were headed by Playing Nice, The 1% Club, The Masked Singer. This is the more practical list for spot-TV planning because it removes repeat episodes and shows the strongest commercial or non-BBC programme strands.
| Rank | Programme | Broadcaster | Audience | Best Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Playing Nice | ITV | 6.27m | 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025 |
| 2 | The 1% Club | ITV | 5.04m | 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025 |
| 3 | The Masked Singer | ITV | 4.85m | 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025 |
| 4 | Coronation Street | ITV | 4.77m | 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025 |
| 5 | Out There | ITV | 4.54m | 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025 |
| 6 | Emmerdale | ITV | 4.19m | 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025 |
| 7 | Six Nations Championship: IRL v ENG | ITV | 3.86m | 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025 |
| 8 | Ant & Dec's Limitless Win | ITV | 3.55m | 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025 |
| 9 | Patience | Channel 4 | 3.49m | 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025 |
| 10 | Grantchester | ITV | 3.35m | 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025 |
| 11 | The Chase | ITV | 3.33m | 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025 |
| 12 | 24 Hours in Police Custody | Channel 4 | 3.31m | 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025 |
| 13 | Dancing on Ice | ITV | 3.31m | 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025 |
| 14 | North Shore | ITV | 3.16m | 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025 |
| 15 | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? | ITV | 3.08m | 20 Jan 2025 – 26 Jan 2025 |
Market Insight
January is a reset month for TV buying. Budgets are being re-opened, Q1 response activity starts to move, and airtime demand is usually more flexible than in the peak retail periods. The practical opportunity is to use value, finance, health, travel and subscription-led messages while audiences are still spending heavily with familiar winter entertainment and news.
Across this period, the useful planning frame is total TV rather than linear alone: linear still provides fast reach, while BVOD and connected TV help add targeting, frequency control and lighter-viewer coverage. Public market context can be tracked through IPA Bellwether, Thinkbox and broadcaster trading updates.
Public Campaign Signals
Public campaign activity tends to be led by New Year retail, travel, fitness, finance, insurance, home improvement and subscription services. For TV buyers, January is useful for testing response curves before spring demand tightens.
This section is deliberately based on public campaign and category signals only. It does not use private spot logs, client data or internal monitoring sources.
Political And Economic Background
The political backdrop is still cost-of-living sensitive, so advertiser language needs to be direct and useful. Value, trust, price certainty and clear switching reasons are stronger than soft image-only claims.
For the wider economic read, the most useful public references are the ONS inflation releases and the Bank of England monetary policy updates. The TV buying implication is consistent: when consumers feel pressure, creative needs to make the benefit easy to understand.
UK News And Weather
Cold, dark evenings generally support heavier in-home viewing. Weather-sensitive categories should watch regional delivery, especially where winter disruption changes retail, travel or home-service response.
The Met Office weather and climate updates are a useful public reference for understanding when weather may have shifted viewing patterns or short-term response.
Upcoming TV Planning Watch
The next planning watch is late winter into early spring: Six Nations rugby, half-term travel, Valentine retail and the first Easter planning conversations. For advertisers, this is a good point to test value-led copy, finance messages, travel offers and health or subscription propositions before spring demand becomes more crowded.
Sources
- BARB Weekly Top 50 Shows, C7 public dashboard data, weeks used: 06 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2025, 13 Jan 2025 – 19 Jan 2025, 20 Jan 2025 – 26 Jan 2025, 27 Jan 2025 – 02 Feb 2025.
- IPA Bellwether reports.
- Thinkbox commercial TV research and planning resources.
- ONS inflation releases.
- Bank of England monetary policy updates.
- Met Office weather and climate updates.
- FIFA World Cup 2026.
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