Multichannel TV uptake by platform

Chart 3.1 shows the development of the multichannel TV market since the launch of Sky’s digital TV service in October 1998. It demonstrates that most of the initial growth in digital households came from the conversion of analogue pay TV households to digital pay TV. But once BSkyB and ONdigital began to offer free digital set-top boxes in 1999, there was a steady increase in new multichannel viewers. In 2003 there was a marked increase in the number of digital terrestrial homes as Freeview’s popularity rose considerably