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Home > Research and Market Data > Television research > Reports and Research > DTV Updates > DTV Update > Digital Television Uptake
Digital Television Uptake
| Pay TV subscribers | Q1, 2004 | Q2, 2004 | Quarterly growth rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital cable | 2,408,530 | 2,469,326 | 2.50% |
| Digital Satellite (Sky) | 6,956,000 | 7,032,000 | 1.10% |
| ADSL | 8,664 | 9,074 | 4.70% |
| Total digital pay TV households | 9,373,194 | 9,510,400 | 1.20% |
| Free-to-view receivers (set-top boxes plus integrated digital TVs) | Q1, 2004 | Q2, 2004 | Quarterly growth rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free-to-view DTT (Freeview) | 3,929,200 | 4,424,485 | 12.60% |
| Free-to-view digital satellite* | 231,000 | 305,000 | 32.00% |
| Total Free-to-view receivers | 4,160,200 | 4,729,485 | 13.70% |
| Adjustment to remove double counting for Households equipped to receive digital on more than one set | -461,133 | -535,426 | |
| Total Free-to-view households | 13,072,261 | 13,704,459 | 4.80% |
| Digital penetration | 53.00% | 55.40% | 2.4%** |
| Additional homes receiving analogue multi-channel services | Q1, 2004 | Q2, 2004 | Quarterly growth rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analogue cable | 916,745 | 898,424 | -2.00% |
| Total analogue and digital | Q1, 2004 | Q2, 2004 | Quarterly growth rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total UK pay TV households | 10,289,939 | 10,408,824 | 1.2.% |
| Total UK multi-channel households | 13,989,006 | 14,602,883 | 4.40% |
| Multi-channel penetration | 56.70% | 59.10% | 2.4%** |
*These figures comprise the number of ‘Solus' card viewers plus an estimate of the number of ex-Sky subscribers who continue to use their set-top boxes for viewing Free to view channels.
** This figure represents the increase in percentage penetration not the % quarterly growth rate. Figures may not add due to rounding.
Sky continued its consistent growth, adding 76,000 paying subscribers over the quarter, to bring the total number of UK subscribers to 7,032,000.
After adjustment for double counting, total DTT households increased by around 421,000 during the quarter, representing an increase of over 12%.
Based on the latest figures for Q2 March 2004, overall cable television subscribers are around 3,367,750. Digital cable subscribers make up around 73% of the total cable base.
Overall digital penetration increased, by 2.4 percentage points, reaching 55.4% of UK households. Multichannel penetration in the UK is now around 59.1%.
Digital and multichannel penetration of UK households
Market shares
The share of total digital homes across all platforms (both pay and free-to-view) at the end of Q2 2004 was:
Share of digital homes by platform
- Sky share of digital homes showed a drop from 55% in Q1 2004 to 53.5% in Q2 2004. This reduction was mainly due to the increase in DTT's share of digital homes. This also resulted in a decrease in Sky's share of multichannel homes to 50.2%. Sky's share of pay-television homes however is remaining stable at 67.6%.
- Cable saw a slight decline in its share of digital TV homes in Q2 2004, and is now at around 18% down from 18.4% in Q1 2004. However the cable share of the Pay TV market showed a slight increase to 32.4% from 32.3% in Q1 2004. Pay TV market shares overall remain largely unchanged over the last year.
- Another quarter of growth for DTT resulted in an increase in share of the digital TV market from 26.5% in Q1 to 28.4% at the end of Q2. DTT share of multichannel homes also increased from 24.8% in Q1 to 26.6% in Q2.
Figures for penetration, share of homes and net additions by platform up to the end of Q2 are as follows:
| Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
Q2 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital cable | 8.50% | 8.70% | 8.80% | 9.00% | 9.40% | 9.80% | 10.00% |
| Digital satellite | 27.70% | 28.60% | 29.40% | 30.40% | 28.90% | 29.10% | 29.70% |
| DTT | 4.80% | 6.00% | 7.20% | 8.60% | 11.90% | 14.10% | 15.70% |
| ADSL | 0.05% | 0.05% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% |
| Total digital | 41.00% | 43.30% | 45.50% | 48.00% | 50.20% | 53.00% | 55.40% |
| Analogue Cable | 5.10% | 4.70% | 4.30% | 4.10% | 4.00% | 3.70% | 3.60% |
| Total Multichannel | 46.10% | 48.00% | 49.80% | 52.20% | 54.20% | 56.70% | 59.10% |
| Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
Q2 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cable | 13.60% | 13.40% | 13.10% | 13.20% | 13.40% | 13.50% | 13.60% |
| Digital satellite | 25.40% | 26.00% | 26.40% | 27.00% | 28.00% | 28.20% | 28.40% |
| DTT | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| ADSL | 0.05% | 0.05% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% |
| Total | 39.10% | 39.40% | 39.60% | 40.30% | 41.50% | 41.70% | 42.10% |
| Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
Q2 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cable | 20.60% | 20.00% | 19.40% | 18.80% | 18.80% | 18.40% | 18.00% |
| Digital satellite | 67.50% | 66.10% | 64.70% | 63.20% | 57.50% | 55.00% | 53.50% |
| DTT | 11.70% | 13.70% | 15.80% | 17.80% | 23.70% | 26.50% | 28.40% |
| ADSL | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.10% |
| Q3 2002 |
Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cable | 29.40% | 27.90% | 26.40% | 25.30% | 24.80% | 23.80% | 23.10% |
| Digital satellite | 60.00% | 59.60% | 59.10% | 58.20% | 53.30% | 51.40% | 50.20% |
| DTT | 10.40% | 12.40% | 14.50% | 16.40% | 21.90% | 24.80% | 26.60% |
| ADSL | 0.11% | 0.09% | 0.09% | 0.08% | 0.07% | 0.06% | 0.06% |
| Q3 2002 |
Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cable | -5.30% | -7.70% | -12.90% | 2.80% | 2.60% | 3.40% | 6.90% |
| Digital satellite | 65.80% | 49.90% | 44.80% | 40.90% | 0.00% | 12.80% | 24.40% |
| DTT | 40.60% | 58.00% | 68.30% | 56.40% | 97.40% | 83.80% | 68.60% |
| ADSL | -1.10% | -0.20% | -0.10% | -0.10% | -0.30% | 0.00% | 0.10% |
* Latest figures for the Top-Up TV service have
not been released for Q2. However as the subscribers to Top-Up TV also receive
free-to-view DTT they are therefore already included under the DTT sections
for subscribers.
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