Product relaunches - has the curse of ITV struck Daybreak?

ITV went for an expensive rebranding and relaunch of their breakfast show last month, ditching the long-running GMTV for Daybreak hosted by former BBC presenters Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley

Has the rebranding been a success? It appears not.

Its a good example to use with students to illustrate the concept of market share. An average of 3.2 million viewers watched the Daybreak show in its third week, a 19.7% audience share of people watching television at that time of the day. That is the same viewing audience as the previous week, but 4.7 points down on predecessor GMTV’s 24.4% share in the equivalent week of September 2009.

So, despite the significant investment in a new programme format (expensive new set, very expensive new presenters), the returns are proving disappointing. The question which Daybreak producers (and investors) will be asking is….why?