UTV LAUNCH AUTUMN SCHEDULE

‘EMMERDALE’ stars Emily Symons and Patrick Mower were in Belfast on September 18 to launch the ‘Emmerdale’ Fan Club for UTV viewers Julian Simmons as Honorary Chairman.
Speaking at UTV's autumn schedule launch, Alan Bremner, Director of Programming, UTV said: " Soaps continue to perform exceptionally well with UTV viewers. ‘Emmerdale’ is a particular local favourite which is enjoyed by an impressive 59 per cent of all Northern Ireland people five nights per week.”
Bremner continued: "We are confident that Autumn 2001 will be a sure fire success with our viewers. The top rating programme of the year so far was ‘Coronation Street’ on January 29 when a massive 80 per cent of local viewers tuned in to watch Mike Baldwin discover he had another son. In fact nine out of the ten top programmes broadcast this year in peak time across all terrestrial channels were shown on UTV – ‘Heartbeat’, ‘Corrie’, ‘Millionaire’, ‘The Soap Awards’ and of course ‘Emmerdale’. And viewers can also look forward to enjoying UTV on satellite before the end of this year.
"Our regional programmes are also firm favourites with our viewers. ‘Lesser Spotted Ulster’ is one of the highest rating regional programmes attracting an average of 163,000 in its highly competitive 19.30 Tuesday evening slot. UTV Live continues to take the lead in news in Northen Ireland as the Spring/Summer average for the 6pm slot was 213,000 viewers." (CD)