Is Red Nose Day running out of steam?

Since its inception in 1985, Comic Relief's Red Nose Day has "urged (people) to come together, have a laugh and raise money to help make the world a better place" - and to a very successful degree. Even before this year's edition gets started, the charity event has raised over £887 million. As our chart shows though, recent fundraising has struggled to match the dizzying heights of 2011 and 2013 when over £100 million was raised each year. 2017 saw the lowest amount raised, a still impressive £82 million, since the financial crisis.

Commenting in the latest annual report, Comic Relief Chair, Tim Davie, addressed this trend explaining that: "The environment Comic Relief operates in is changing faster than we could have imagined at the start of this decade. Media and news consumption is radically different, with traditional TV channels and media outlets no longer enjoying the audience figures of the past. As an organisation that traditionally has relied on these channels to deliver our campaigns and raise money, this is a real challenge to how we operate."

Whether the charity has found any solutions to these problems yet will be revealed over the next few days as the amount raised in 2019 becomes clear.