BBC HD and discrepancies?

[eve11]

Comparing the ratings I got for Series 5 from the Barb website with the ratings I got from The wikipedia site I am coming up with differences due to the effects of "BBC HD"

                                 title  barb   wiki  Diff
1                                 Rose 10.81 10.810 0.000
2                 The End of the World  7.97  7.970 0.000
3                     The Unquiet Dead  8.86  8.860 0.000
4                     Aliens of London  7.63  7.630 0.000
5                      World War Three  7.98  7.980 0.000
6                                Dalek  8.63  8.630 0.000
7                        The Long Game  8.01  8.010 0.000
8                         Father's Day  8.06  8.060 0.000
9                      The Empty Child  7.11  7.110 0.000
10                   The Doctor Dances  6.86  6.860 0.000
11                           Boom Town  7.68  7.680 0.000
12                            Bad Wolf  6.81  6.810 0.000
13             The Parting of the Ways  6.91  6.910 0.000
14                           New Earth  8.62  8.620 0.000
15                      Tooth and Claw  9.24  9.240 0.000
16                      School Reunion  8.31  8.310 0.000
17           The Girl in the Fireplace  7.90  7.900 0.000
18                Rise of the Cybermen  9.22  9.220 0.000
19                    The Age of Steel  7.63  7.630 0.000
20                 The Idiot's Lantern  6.76  6.760 0.000
21               The Impossible Planet  6.32  6.320 0.000
22                       The Satan Pit  6.08  6.080 0.000
23                     Love & Monsters  6.66  6.660 0.000
24                            Fear Her  7.14  7.140 0.000
25                      Army of Ghosts  8.19  8.190 0.000
26                            Doomsday  8.22  8.220 0.000
27                     Smith and Jones  8.71  8.710 0.000
28                The Shakespeare Code  7.23  7.230 0.000
29                            Gridlock  8.41  8.410 0.000
30                 Daleks in Manhattan  6.69  6.690 0.000
31             Evolution of the Daleks  6.97  6.970 0.000
32              The Lazarus Experiment  7.19  7.190 0.000
33                                  42  7.41  7.410 0.000
34                        Human Nature  7.74  7.740 0.000
35                 The Family of Blood  7.21  7.210 0.000
36                               Blink  6.62  6.620 0.000
37                              Utopia  7.84  7.840 0.000
38                  The Sound of Drums  7.51  7.510 0.000
39              Last of the Time Lords  8.61  8.610 0.000
40                   Partners in Crime  9.14  9.140 0.000
41                The Fires of Pompeii  9.04  9.040 0.000
42                   Planet of the Ood  7.50  7.500 0.000
43              The Sontaran Stratagem  7.06  7.060 0.000
44                      The Poison Sky  6.53  6.530 0.000
45               The Doctor's Daughter  7.33  7.330 0.000
46            The Unicorn and the Wasp  8.41  8.410 0.000
47              Silence in the Library  6.27  6.270 0.000
48                  Forest of the Dead  7.84  7.840 0.000
49                            Midnight  8.05  8.050 0.000
50                           Turn Left  8.09  8.090 0.000
51                    The Stolen Earth  8.78  8.780 0.000
52                       Journey's End 10.57 10.570 0.000
53                   The Eleventh Hour  9.59 10.085 0.495
54                     The Beast Below  7.93  8.422 0.492
55               Victory of the Daleks  7.82  8.205 0.385
56                  The Time of Angels  8.13  8.590 0.460
57                     Flesh and Stone  8.02  8.495 0.475
58              The Vampires of Venice  7.28  7.680 0.400
59                        Amy's Choice  7.06  7.548 0.488
60                    The Hungry Earth  6.01  6.493 0.483
61                          Cold Blood  7.04  7.487 0.447
62              Vincent and the Doctor  6.29  6.761 0.471
63                          The Lodger  5.98  6.441 0.461
64                 The Pandorica Opens  6.94  7.574 0.634
65                        The Big Bang  6.12  6.696 0.576
66            The Impossible Astronaut  8.86  8.860 0.000
67                     Day of the Moon  7.30  7.300 0.000
68         The Curse of the Black Spot  7.85  7.850 0.000
69                   The Doctor's Wife  7.97  7.970 0.000
70                     The Rebel Flesh  7.35  7.350 0.000
71                   The Almost People  6.72  6.720 0.000
72              A Good Man Goes to War  7.51  7.510 0.000
73                   Let's Kill Hitler  8.10  8.100 0.000
74                       Night Terrors  7.07  7.070 0.000
75                 The Girl Who Waited  7.60  7.600 0.000
76                     The God Complex  6.77  6.770 0.000
77                        Closing Time  6.93  6.930 0.000
78           The Wedding of River Song  7.67  7.670 0.000
79                Asylum of the Daleks  8.33  8.330 0.000
80            Dinosaurs on a Spaceship  7.57  7.570 0.000
81                 A Town Called Mercy  8.42  8.420 0.000
82                  The Power of Three  7.67  7.670 0.000
83           The Angels Take Manhattan  7.82  7.820 0.000
84             The Bells of Saint John  8.44  8.440 0.000
85                The Rings of Akhaten  7.45  7.450 0.000
86                            Cold War  7.37  7.370 0.000
87                                Hide  6.61  6.610 0.000
88 Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS  6.50  6.500 0.000

All of the values match except for series 5. I looked at the source from the wiki, and it cites back to the BARB site. But the discrepancy is that the bigger number from the website is obtained from the sum of "BBC1" and "BBC HD" ratings. Now I'm wondering: (1) when did BBC HD launch? (2) when did DW start getting broadcast in HD and (3) did they eventually consolidate the numbers back again? Or am I going to find BBC HD simulcast numbers for series 6 and 7 as well?

ETA: I just checked for 2011 and it only has a Tuesday repeat and the BBC1 airing. So I'm guessing then it was just split for series 5.

EATA: For anyone interested in munging around with this data, here are the two files I've made:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/71925398/format-DWratings.txt

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/71925398/format-ratings.txt

First is data on the 88 episodes from series 1 through series 7 "Journey to the Center of the TARDIS", with some covariates.

Second is the top 30 shows for each of the big channels for that week, based on the BARB top 30 numbers. Both files are pipe ("|") delimited. Date formats should match up.

You can apparently get all of the channels by top 10 list too. I didn't do that; only the top ones that were listed based on the BARB "Top 30" lists. These were: BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 5, Channel 4, every week. But starting in 2008 they keep track of the top 30 shows from "Other" channels on the site, so you can bound the competitors ratings that aren't on this list with the lowest rating on that list.

Comments

[nonelvis]

I'd thought that S5 was the first time they broadcast in HD, but Wikipedia says that "Planet of the Dead" was the first episode broadcast in that format. I don't recall if the rest of the specials were HD, unfortunately.

[eve11]

Yeah, I didn't get the data for the specials anyway; I'm just looking at the series episodes. But I do recall possibly that the specials were broadcast in HD.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I find it funny that some of the best-loved episodes are considered the poorest ratings-wise...

[eve11]

True. I want to normalize them according to their rank as opposed to the ratings as well, since ratings for the big 5 channels are down across the board from 2005 through to 2013.

[ibishtar.livejournal.com]

I remember when BBC HD was new, the BBC had the BARB count their figures separately for research purposes, even for simulcast SD+HD showings, while ITV had them added together. The Specials was when Doctor Who started to be broadcast in HD. I remember how, if you add BBC HD+SD figures, both parts of The End of Time were #1 for the week, but the BARB showed them at #3 and #2, I think. Which annoyed fans, as you might imagine. They continued to be reported separately for S5. If I remember right, one of the Silurian episodes was the only one not to be simulcast, the HD broadcast had a half-hour delay.
The figures started being reported together with S6. I just checked the ratings for the Eleventh Hour, and indeed the difference between the BARB and Wiki figures are the HD numbers. If you have access to figures from the BARB website, maybe you'll be able to see the BBC HD figures listed separately there as well.
Funnily enough, it is now the ITV1 figures that are a nightmare to compute what with SD, HD and +1 figures counted separately.

[eve11]

I looked at the top 10 site here: http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-10? and you are correct; the difference between the BARB rating and that on the wiki is the HD audience.

I have seen a few different kinds of ITV on the ratings I pulled down from the top 30. ITV seems to have a lot of reality shows and stuff?