(22 September 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: More than 80 per cent of UK homes now have digital television on the main set according to research published by Ofcom.

Ofcom’s Digital Television Progress Report for the first quarter of 2007 (January-March) shows that household take-up of digital television now stands at 80.5 per cent (20.4 million homes), up from 77.2 per cent the previous quarter.

The report also shows that Freeview is now on the main set in 8.4 million homes (up from 7.7 million in the previous quarter), and has now overtaken the number of Sky UK subscribers (eight million in the first quarter of 2007).

During the quarter a further 869,000 UK homes acquired digital television for the first time, following over a million additions the previous quarter.

Key trends for the first quarter of 2007 include:

In total, 1.96 million Freeview devices (set-top-boxes plus integrated digital televisions) were sold during the quarter, up from 1.2 million in the first quarter of 2006 (61 per cent rise year-on-year). This was the highest first quarter for Freeview sales ever.

Digital terrestrial television accounted for 81 per cent (670,000) of the growth in the digital television market during the quarter.

Some 11.7 million homes (46 per cent) are now viewing television on at least one Freeview device, 1.1 million more than at the end of the previous quarter.

Sky grew its customer base by 32,020 during the quarter, taking its total number of UK subscribers to just over eight million. Free-to-view satellite added 70,000 homes during the quarter, taking the total number of homes on this platform to 885,000.

Some 2.17 million Sky customers (27 per cent of all customers) now subscribe to Sky’s personal video recorder service, up from 1.96 million in the fourth quarter of 2006.

With 3.4 million subscribers at the end of the quarter, cable rose to its highest level of take-up in almost five years (13.4% of UK homes).

Cable gained an additional 36,100 new homes during the quarter, outperforming growth in subscription satellite (32,020 new homes) for the first time since the third quarter of 2001.
Virgin Media added 71,000 subscribers to its personal video recorder service during the quarter, up 90 per cent from 79,000 in Q4 2006 to 150,000.

An additional 19,000 homes took a broadband television service during the quarter, an increase of 44.2 per cent on the previous quarter. The total number of homes now receiving television over broadband stands at 62,000.

Ofcom CEO Ed Richards said, "More than four in five UK households are now enjoying the benefits of digital television. It’s great news that we are continuing to see the market grow strongly as we approach the start of digital switchover."