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20|06|07

Digital TV in over 80% of UK homes as Freeview overtakes Sky subscribers

More than 80% of UK homes now have digital television on the main set according to research published today 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% (20.4m homes), up from 77.2% the previous quarter. The report also shows that Freeview is now on the main set in 8.4 million homes (up from 7.7m in the previous quarter), and has now overtaken the number of Sky UK subscribers (8.0m 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:

DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TELEVISION – Freeview services

• 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% rise year-on-year). This was the highest first quarter for Freeview sales ever.
• Digital terrestrial television accounted for 81% (670,000) of the growth in the digital television market during the quarter.
• Some 11.7 million homes (46%) are now viewing television on at least one Freeview device, 1.1 million more than at the end of the previous quarter.

DIGITAL SATELLITE TELEVISION – Sky subscribers and free-to-view satellite services

• Sky grew its customer base by 32,020 during the quarter, taking its total number of UK subscribers to just over 8 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% of all customers) now subscribe to Sky’s personal video recorder service, up from 1.96 million in Q4 2006.

CABLE TELEVISION – Virgin Media services plus others

• 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% from 79,000 in Q4 2006 to 150,000.

TELEVISION OVER BROADBAND (Tiscali TV)

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

Chief Executive 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."

The full report is available at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2007_q1/

Ends.

NOTES FOR EDITORS AND CSEs

1. The term ‘digital television household’ is defined by the kind of digital service viewed on the household’s primary television set. Therefore, a household with satellite or cable on the primary television set but digital terrestrial television (DTT) on a second set would be defined as a satellite or cable digital household. A household with DTT services on the primary television set and other analogue sets in the home would be counted as a DTT household.

2. Figures for Sky television refer only to active Sky subscriptions in the UK and do not include former subscribers who may have churned and who continue to receive the free-to-air channels.

3. BT Vision customers are not counted within the television over broadband figure. This is because whilst downloading is available over broadband, live scheduled television via BT Vision is delivered via DTT.

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