If there is a silver lining to the rain cloud that burst over Cumbria last week then it's the nation's news channels, rather than the saturated local communities, that have been able to catch sight of it.

The latest ratings figures released by Barb show that the flooding that devastated areas such as Cockermouth gripped people locally and nationally last week, with a substantial rise in the level of viewers seeking news updates.

Storming the ratings

ITV1's Border news offering Lookaround enjoyed a 40% increase in viewer volume, with its bulletins reaching an audience of 291,000.

Locally, in the affected area, Sky came out on top with 3.3% of viewers against the BBC's 2.31% - a figure helped by its claim to be first on the ground, and in the air with its news helicopter, as the extent of the flooding became apparent on Thursday evening.

Nationally the BBC comfortably outperformed Sky, recording healthy viewing figures of 2.8m, 2.9m and 3.6m across Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Sky consistently recorded around 2m viewers over the same period.

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