Ofcom publishes the Communications Market October 2004 Quarterly Update

Ofcom today published the Communications Market Quarterly Update covering the latest data available to 30 September 2004.

The Update shows that, for the first time:

The UK has overtaken Germany in broadband penetration. By the end of June 2004 the UK had 7.5 connections per hundred population compared to 6.1 in Spain, 6.3 in Italy, 6.4 in Portugal, 6.7 in Germany, 8.3 in France, 12.1 in Sweden, 15.8 in the Netherlands and 15.6 in Denmark.
Digital only television channels combined account for a greater share of viewing than any of the main terrestrial channels individually; 26% compared to 24.9% for BBC1 for the second quarter.
The prices of DAB digital radios continued to fall; the cheapest now costs less than £50.

Other key developments identified in each sector include:

Telecoms

The total number of broadband subscribers in the UK passed the five million mark, reaching 5.3 million by the end of September 2004.
The number of fixed lines with Carrier Pre-Selection passed four million during the same period; BT’s share of fixed voice call volumes fell from 56.7% to 55.4%.
Fixed voice revenues continue to decline; in total, fixed voice and access represented just 30% of total end-user spending on telecoms in the three months to June 2004.
Mobile and data revenues (£2.9bn for the second quarter) continued to exceed revenues for fixed calls and access (£2.8bn for the second quarter).
84% of fixed line customers and 87% of mobile customers are satisfied or very satisfied with their overall level of service.
Business users are spending £1bn on fixed data services and £100m on mobile data services every quarter.

By the end of June 2004, more than 55% of UK households received digital television.
Freeview (free-to-view digital terrestrial television) was the largest contributor to growth, adding more than 400,000 households in the second quarter of 2004.
Viewing of the main five terrestrial channels accounts for more than 80% of viewing in the South West of England but only just over 65% in Wales .
In the three months to June 2004, both BBC1 and BBC2 received their greatest share of viewing in the South West of England.
ITV1’s share of viewing exceeded BBC1 in Northern Ireland and the Scottish Borders but was less in every other region.

The licensing of new radio services has continued over the last two months. Twelve applications were received for the new FM licence in Edinburgh, four for the new licence in Blackburn and six for Ashford ( Kent). These will be the first licences to be awarded under Ofcom’s new licensing process; around 30 FM licences are expected to be awarded over the next two to three years.
Despite a wider choice of radio stations, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 continue to have the greatest share of listening in London, as well as across the UK.

The Communications Market October 2004 Quarterly Update is available via the link on the right hand side of the page.

Ends.