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Home > Research and Market Data > Television research > Reports and Research > DTV Updates > Q1 2004 > Digital Television Uptake
Digital Television Uptake
Platform figures for Q1 2004 & Q4 2003
| Q1, 2004 | Q4, 2003* | Quarterly growth rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital cable | 2,408,530 | 2,324,857 | 3.6% |
| Digital Satellite (Sky) | 6,956,000 | 6,893,000 | 0.9% |
| ADSL | 8,664 | 8,887 | -2.6% |
| Total digital pay TV households | 9,373,194 | 9,226,744 | 1.6% |
| Q1, 2004 | Q4, 2003* | Quarterly growth rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free-to-view DTT (Freeview) | 3,929,200 | 3,287,000 | 19.5% |
| Free-to-view digital satellite** | 231,000 | 211,000 | 9.5% |
| Total Free-to-view receivers | 4,160,200 | 3,498,000 | 18.9% |
| Adjustment to remove double counting for Households equipped to receive digital on more than one set | -461,133 | -363,303 |
| Q1, 2004 | Q4, 2003* | Quarterly growth rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Free-to-view households | 3,699,067 | 3,134,697 | 18.0% |
| Total UK digital households | 13,072,261 | 12,361,441 | 5.7% |
| Digital penetration | 53.0% | 50.2% | 2.8%*** |
| Q1, 2004 | Q4, 2003* | Quarterly growth rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analogue cable* | 916,745 | 978,140 | -6.3% |
| Q1, 2004 | Q4, 2003* | Quarterly growth rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total UK pay TV households | 10,289,939 | 10,204,884 | 0.8.% |
| Total UK multi-channel households | 13,989,006 | 13,339,581 | 4.9% |
| Multi-channel penetration | 56.7% | 54.2% | 2.5%*** |
* Some figures for Q4 2003 may have been restated since the previous publication. This is as a result of updated or revised figures being received from the operators.
** 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 66,000 paying subscribers over the quarter, to bring the total number of UK subscribers to 6,956,000.
Total DTT households increased by around 544,000 during the quarter, representing an increase of over 18%.
Based on the latest figures for Q1 March 2004, overall cable television subscribers are around 3,325,000. Digital cable subscribers make up around 72 % of the total cable base.
Overall digital penetration increased, by 2.8 percentage points, reaching 53% of UK households. Multichannel penetration in the UK is now around 56.7%.
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 Q1 2004 was:
Share of digital homes by platform
- Sky share of digital homes showed a drop from 55.8% in Q4 2003 to 53.2% in Q1 2004. This reduction was mainly due to the increase in DTT share of digital homes combined with a slow quarter in terms of Sky additions. This also resulted in a decrease in Sky's share of multichannel homes to 51.4%. Sky's share of pay-television homes however remained stable at 67.6%.
- Cable saw a slight decline in share of digital TV homes in Q1 2004, now at around 18.4% from 18.9% in Q3 2003. Likewise the cable share of the Pay TV market showed a similar drop from 32.9% in Q3 2003 to 32.3% in Q1 2004.
- After another strong quarter of growth DTT showed an increase in share of the digital TV market from 23.7% in Q4 to 26.5% at the end of Q1. DTT share of multichannel homes also increased from 21.9% in Q4 to 24.8% in Q1.
Figures for penetration, share of homes and net additions by platform up to the end of Q1 are as follows:
| Q3 2002 |
Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital cable | 8.3% | 8.5% | 8.7% | 8.8% | 9.0% | 9.4% | 9.8% |
| Digital satellite | 26.8% | 27.7% | 28.6% | 29.4% | 30.4% | 28.9% | 29.1% |
| DTT | 4.2% | 4.8% | 6.0% | 7.2% | 8.6% | 11.9% | 14.1% |
| ADSL | 0.1% | 0.05% | 0.05% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% |
| Total digital | 39.4% | 41.0% | 43.3% | 45.5% | 48.0% | 50.2% | 53.0% |
| Analogue Cable | 5.4% | 5.1% | 4.7% | 4.3% | 4.1% | 4.0% | 3.7% |
| Total Multichannel | 44.9% | 46.1% | 48.0% | 49.8% | 52.2% | 54.2% | 56.7% |
| Q3 2002 |
Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cable | 13.8% | 13.6% | 13.4% | 13.1% | 13.2% | 13.4% | 13.5% |
| Digital satellite | 24.7% | 25.4% | 26.0% | 26.4% | 27.0% | 28.0% | 28.2% |
| DTT | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| ADSL | 0.1% | 0.05% | 0.05% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% |
| Total | 38.6% | 39.1% | 39.4% | 39.6% | 40.3% | 41.5% | 41.7% |
| Q3 2002 |
Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cable | 21.1% | 20.6% | 20.0% | 19.4% | 18.8% | 18.8% | 18.4% |
| Digital satellite | 68.1% | 67.5% | 66.1% | 64.7% | 63.2% | 57.5% | 55.0% |
| DTT | 10.6% | 11.7% | 13.7% | 15.8% | 17.8% | 23.7% | 26.5% |
| ADSL | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Q3 2002 |
Q4 2002 |
Q1 2003 |
Q2 2003 |
Q3 2003 |
Q4 2003 |
Q1 2004 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cable | 30.7% | 29.4% | 27.9% | 26.4% | 25.3% | 24.8% | 23.8% |
| Digital satellite | 59.8% | 60.0% | 59.6% | 59.1% | 58.2% | 53.3% | 51.4% |
| DTT | 9.3% | 10.4% | 12.4% | 14.5% | 16.4% | 21.9% | 24.8% |
| ADSL | 0.2% | 0.11% | 0.09% | 0.09% | 0.08% | 0.07% | 0.06% |
| Share of net additions Cable | -23.2% | -5.3% | -7.7% | -12.9% | 2.8% | 2.6% | 3.4% |
| Digital Satellite | 83.1% | 65.8% | 49.9% | 44.8% | 40.9% | 0.0% | 12.8% |
| DTT | 40.8% | 40.6% | 58.0% | 68.3% | 56.4% | 97.4% | 83.8% |
| ADSL | -0.7% | -1.1% | -0.2% | -0.1% | -0.1% | -0.3% | 0.0% |
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