Five's evening news bulletin has seen a ratings increase of 72% since Natasha Kaplinsky made her debut as presenter last month. Since it launched on 18 February, her 5.00pm GMT broadcast has attracted an average audience of 850,000 viewers. Her 7.00pm GMT bulletin audiences averaged 399,000 viewers a 44% rise on the first six weeks of 2007. Kaplinsky replaced the then incumbent Kirsty Young and her first appearance attracted one million viewers, almost double the usual early evening news audience. The channel's previous late afternoon bulletin had been broadcast at 5.30pm. Her second bulletin, two hours later, attracted 431,000 viewers - almost a third more than the average.The viewing figures compare with the two main terrestrial channels BBC 1 has an early evening audience of 3.5 million, while rival ITV draws in 3.3 million for the same period.

Channel Five are obviously pleased with the increased viewing figures and feel fully vindicated with their decision to poach Kaplinsky with a big money offer from the BBC.

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