Big Brother audiences suggest a product on the slide

There are lots of examples of products which are firmly in the decline stage of the product life cycle. The latest series of Big Brother in the UK is a good way of explaining this phase of the theory…

Last night’s Big Brother finale in the UK was the least watched to date, according to early ratings figures.

The main results show, which saw Rachel Rice crowned the surprise winner, drew an average of 4.71m (23% viewer market share) for Channel 4 in the 10pm hour. While still huge numbers for the channel, the ratings are the lowest for a BB finale in its nine series history. Last year’s August 31 finale drew 5.3m (29%), which was also a record low at the time and a fall from the 7.5m who watched the 2006 finale.

The best-rated BB finale was the 2002 edition, won by Kate Lawler, with 9.4m. The victory of transexual contestant Nadia Almeida in 2004 also drew huge numbers, with an average audience of 8.3m.

Audience data is not the only way of measuring the success of a television format. However, the advertisers who are persuaded to pay for slots during the series and finale will certainly be interested in knowing how many people are watching (and who they are).

Where next for the declining BB product? Are there are product extension strategies that can be employed which can stop the slide in audiences during BB10?