Survation for Daily Star Sunday May 6th – Key Findings: The Voice v.s. Britain’s Got Talent

• Full data tables are available here.
• In the battle between the shows, the viewer has won – many viewers watch both shows so the “overlap” removal benefits viewers
• BGT attracts a lower social grade of viewer
• The Voice attracts almost equal viewers from all social grades and attracts a younger demographic

Headline Figures

When asked how often they watch the present series of BBC’s ‘The Voice’, 25.6% of those surveyed said that they watch it every week live on TV, while 7.4% watch the programme every week on catchup- meaning that a third of respondents (33%) watch ‘The Voice’ every week. 12.7% of those surveyed watch the TV show ‘some weeks but not all’ while 11.9% have watched it ‘only occasionally’. 42.5% of respondents said that they have not seen it at all.

‘Britain’s Got Talent’ fared very slightly better overall but was less likely to be watched live. 21.3% of respondents said that they watch it every week live on TV and 12% watch it every week on catchup- translating to exactly a third (33.3%) of respondents watching ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ every week. 10% of those surveyed watch the TV programme ‘some weeks but not all’ while 16.1% have watched it ‘only occasionally’. 40.6% of respondents said that they have not seen the present series of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

Gender

Both programmes are by far more popular among women than men- with 39.9% of female respondents (versus 26.3% of males) watching Britain’s Got Talent every week in some format and 39.6% (compared to 25.9% of males) of females surveyed watching ‘The Voice’ on a weekly basis. The males we surveyed were much more likely to say that they have never watched ‘The Voice’ (49.5%) than female respondents (35.8%), and also more likely to have never seen ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (48.4% of males versus 33.2% of females).

Region

Interestingly, both ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and ‘The Voice’ are most popular in the North East. 46.7% and 45.7% of respondents from that region, respectively, watch the programmes every week, either live or through catchup. In comparison, both programmes are least popular in the East of England, with 25% of respondents from that region saying that they watch Britain’s Got Talent every week, live or otherwise, and the Voice faring only slightly better with 28.1% of respondents from the East of England watching it on a weekly basis.

Age

Both TV shows are distinctly less popular among those aged over 55 compared to other age groups. 26.1% of those aged over 65 and 26% of those aged between 55 and 64 watch Britain’s Got Talent every week while 24.2% of those aged over 65 and 27.3% of those aged between 55 and 64 watch ‘The Voice’ on a weekly basis. 53% of those aged over 65 and 50% of those aged between 55 and 64 have never watched ‘The Voice’, versus 35% of 18-24 year olds.

Similarly, 52.3% of the over 65s and 45.6% of those aged between 55 and 64 have never watched ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ compared to 33.1% of 18-24 year olds. In terms of age, the peak audience group for ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ is 45-55 year olds (40.6%), and for ‘The Voice’ it is those aged between 24 and 35 (41.3%).

Social Grade

It is worth noting that ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ is more likely to be watched on a weekly basis, either live or otherwise, by those in the DE social grade category (40.6%) than those in the AB group (21%). In comparison, ‘The Voice’ is fairly evenly popular across all brackets- with a third (33.3%) of DE respondents watching it every week versus 30.4% of those in the AB group.

And finally…

Perhaps one of the most crucial points to make is that, as a general rule, many of the same are watching both TV programmes. For example, of those respondents who watch ‘The Voice’ live every week, only 15.3% have never watched ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. 43.9% of those who watch ‘The Voice’ live every week then watch ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ on catchup, while 61.3% of respondents who watch ‘The Voice’ every week on catchup also watch ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ on catchup.

By Charlotte Jee