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14|03|07

Almost half of UK television sets are connected to digital

Ofcom today published its Communications Market: Digital Television Progress Report for the fourth quarter of 2006 (October-December).

The report shows that at the end of 2006 almost half (48.5%) of the UK’s 60 million television sets were connected to a digital device, up from 44.7% in the previous quarter and 39% at the end of 2005.

During the quarter a further 1 million UK homes acquired digital television for the first time. In total, 77.2% of homes now have some form of digital television, up from 73.3% in the third quarter of 2006 and 69.5% at the end of 2005.

The quarter also saw continued growth in the number of secondary sets converted to digital. Over 9 million second sets are now connected to a digital device up from 7.9 million last quarter and just over 6 million a year ago.

Key trends for the fourth quarter of 2006 include:

Digital terrestrial television - Freeview services

• More Freeview devices were sold than in any previous quarter at 2.4 million (up 24% when compared to Q4 2005). This included a record number of television sets with integrated digital tuners sold during the quarter (almost 1 million). Freeview set-top boxes accounted for the other 1.4 million sales.
• Some 700,000 analogue terrestrial homes acquired Freeview for the first time during the period, accounting for 70% of the growth in digital television during the quarter. Freeview devices are now in 10.6 million homes (up from 9.3 million in Q3 2006), 7.7 million of which are connected to the main set in the home, typically in the living room.
• Over one in four (25.6%) of the UK’s television sets is now connected to a Freeview device.

Digital satellite television - BSkyB and free-to-view satellite services

• The satellite platform added over 200,000 homes in the quarter and is now installed in almost 9 million homes. Of these, BSkyB gained around 160,000 new subscribers, increasing its presence to almost 8 million homes.
• Satellite is on the main television set in around 35% of homes, more than any other platform. This compares to 34% at the end of 2005.
• BSkyB gained an additional 133,000 multiroom subscribers during the quarter (a service that allows viewing on a second set), taking the total to 1.2 million. Also, the number of Sky subscribers using Sky’s personal video recorder service increased by 276,000 during the quarter (to almost 2 million), equating to 25% of the total subscriber base.

Cable television - Virgin Media services plus others

• Cable providers gained around 38,500 additional television households over the three months to December 2006. This was the highest number of quarterly cable additions since the first quarter of 2004. There are now over 3.3 million cable television households.
• The cable networks continue to upgrade from analogue to digital. As of December 2006, 90% of all cable television households were digital, up from 82% in December 2005.
• There are now over 3.3 million cable television households representing 13.3% of all television households (up from 13.1% in Q3 2006). In addition, 6.1% of the UK’s 60 million television sets are now connected to a cable television service.

The full report is available at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2006_q4/

Ends.

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