GWR are taking heart that their first dabbling into television - Classic FM TV – is already competing well with the BBC’s arts and classical station just a few weeks after it launched – and even though their station isn’t available via Freeview. 720,000 people were watching Classic FM in its first fortnight, while, despite bigger budgets and a year of publicity, BBC 4 is struggling to reach their one million target.
Julian Rigamonti, head of the station, told the Media Guardian: "The indication is that the average daily share is higher than I was hoping to achieve by the end of the first year - an AB share of around 0.07%. It's very encouraging. One of the biggest elements for us is that people are watching a lot longer than other music TV. It means that I am accelerating our playlist and record companies are creating new videos for us. We are acting as a catalyst for classical music videos, a bit like MTV did for the pop music industry.”
The advertising industry will also be keeping an eye on the growth of the station who boast a high percentage of the lucrative AB market among their viewers.