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Digital Television Uptake
Platform figures for Q3 2003 & Q4 2003
| |
Q3, 2003 |
Q4, 2003 |
Quarterly
growth rate |
| Pay TV subscribers |
|
|
|
| Digital cable* |
2,248,190 |
2,248,166 |
0.0% |
| Digital DSat (Sky) |
6,718,000 |
6,893,000 |
2.6% |
| ADSL |
10,037 |
8,887 |
-11.5% |
|
|
| Total Digital pay TV households |
8,976,227 |
9,150,053 |
1.9% |
| |
|
|
|
| Free-to-view receivers (set-top boxes plus
integrated digital TVs) |
|
|
|
| Free-to-view DTT (Freeview) |
2,360,200 |
3,386,700 |
43.5% |
| Free-to-view DSat** |
827,705 |
211,000 |
-74.5% |
|
| |
| Total Free-to-view receivers |
3,187,905 |
3,597,700 |
12.9% |
| Adjustment to remove double counting for Households
equipped to receive digital on more than one set |
-230,000 |
-390,000 |
|
| |
|
|
|
| Total Free-to-view households |
2,957,905 |
3,207,700 |
8.4% |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Total UK digital households |
11,934,132 |
12,357,753 |
3.5% |
|
|
| Digital penetration |
48.0% |
50.2% |
2.2%*** |
| |
|
|
|
| Additional homes receiving analogue multi-channel
services |
|
|
|
| Analogue cable* |
1,028,977 |
1,028,961 |
-0.0% |
| |
|
|
|
| Total analogue and digital |
|
|
|
| Total UK pay TV households |
10,005,204 |
10,179,014 |
1.7% |
| Total UK multi-channel households |
12,963,109 |
13,386,714 |
3.3% |
| Multi-channel penetration |
52.2% |
54.4% |
2.2%** |
|
*Q4 Cable figures for the main cable operators are based on the most recent figures released for Q3 September 2003
**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 175,000 paying subscribers over the quarter. Subscribers in Ireland stood at 315,000 by the end of the quarter, bringing the total number of Sky subscribers to 7,208,000.
Total DTT households increased by around 866,500 during the quarter, representing an increase of around 41%. This brought the total number of DTT households to 2,996,700 by the end of December 2003.
Based on the latest figures for Q3 September 2003, overall Cable television subscribers are around 3,200,000. Digital cable subscribers make up around 70 % of the total cable base.
Overall digital penetration increased, by 2.2 percentage points, reaching 50.2% of UK households. Multichannel penetration in the UK is now around 54.4%.
Digital & Multichannel Penetration of UK Households
The share of total digital homes across platforms (both pay and Free-to-view) at the end of Q4 2003 was:
Market Shares
Share of Digital Homes by Platform
- Sky share of digital homes was 63.2% in Q3 2003 but is now 57.5% in Q4, this reduction was mainly due to the increase in DTT share of digital homes. This also resulted in a decrease in Sky's share of multichannel homes to 53.1%. Sky did however increase its share of pay-television homes during the quarter, to 67.7%.
- Cable saw a slight decline in share in Q4 2003 for digital, multichannel, and pay television homes, with shares of 18.2%, 24.5% and 32.2%, respectively.
- After a strong quarter of growth DTT showed an increase in share of the digital TV market from 17.8% in Q3 to 24.2% at the end of Q4. Its share of multichannel homes likewise increased from 16.4% in Q3 to 22.4% in Q4
Figures for penetration, share of homes and net additions by platform up to the end of Q4 are as follows:
| Digital Take-up |
2002 Q2 |
2002 Q3 |
2002 Q4 |
2003 Q1 |
2003 Q2 |
2003 Q3 |
2003 Q4 |
| DCable |
8.3% |
8.3% |
8.5% |
8.7% |
8.8% |
9.0% |
9.1% |
| DSat |
25.9% |
26.8% |
27.7% |
28.6% |
29.4% |
30.4% |
28.9% |
| DTT |
3.7% |
4.2% |
4.8% |
6.0% |
7.2% |
8.6% |
12.2% |
| ADSL |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.05% |
0.05% |
0.04% |
0.04% |
0.04% |
| Total Digital |
38.0% |
39.4% |
41.0% |
43.3% |
45.5% |
48.0% |
50.2% |
| ACable |
5.8% |
5.4% |
5.1% |
4.7% |
4.3% |
4.1% |
4.2% |
| Total Multichannel |
43.8% |
44.9% |
46.1% |
48.0% |
49.8% |
52.2% |
54.4% |
|
| Pay TV Take-up |
2002 Q2 |
2002 Q3 |
2002 Q4 |
2003 Q1 |
2003 Q2 |
2003 Q3 |
2003 Q4 |
| Cable |
14.1% |
13.8% |
13.6% |
13.4% |
13.1% |
13.2% |
13.3% |
| DSat |
24.0% |
24.7% |
25.4% |
26.0% |
26.4% |
27.0% |
28.0% |
| DTT |
3.7% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
0.0% |
| ADSL |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.05% |
0.05% |
0.04% |
0.04% |
0.04% |
| Total |
41.8% |
38.6% |
39.1% |
39.4% |
39.6% |
40.3% |
41.4% |
|
| Share of Digital TV Market |
2002 Q2 |
2002 Q3 |
2002 Q4 |
2003 Q1 |
2003 Q2 |
2003 Q3 |
2003 Q4 |
| Cable |
21.8% |
21.1% |
20.6% |
20.0% |
19.4% |
18.8% |
18.2% |
| DSat |
68.2% |
68.1% |
67.5% |
66.1% |
64.7% |
63.2% |
57.5% |
| DTT |
9.8% |
10.6% |
11.7% |
13.7% |
15.8% |
17.8% |
24.2% |
| ADSL |
0.2% |
0.2% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
0.1% |
|
| Share of Multichannel TV Market |
2002 Q2 |
2002 Q3 |
2002 Q4 |
2003 Q1 |
2003 Q2 |
2003 Q3 |
2003 Q4 |
| Cable |
32.1% |
30.7% |
29.4% |
27.9% |
26.4% |
25.3% |
24.5% |
| DSat |
59.2% |
59.8% |
60.0% |
59.6% |
59.1% |
58.2% |
53.1% |
| DTT |
8.5% |
9.3% |
10.4% |
12.4% |
14.5% |
16.4% |
22.4% |
| ADSL |
0.2% |
0.2% |
0.11% |
0.09% |
0.09% |
0.08% |
0.07% |
|
| Share of net additions |
2002 Q2 |
2002 Q3 |
2002 Q4 |
2003 Q1 |
2003 Q2 |
2003 Q3 |
2003 Q4 |
| Cable |
-49.0% |
-23.2% |
-5.3% |
-7.7% |
-12.9% |
2.8% |
0.0% |
| DSat |
119.0% |
83.1% |
65.8% |
49.9% |
44.8% |
40.9% |
-104.3% |
| DTT |
-169.4% |
40.8% |
40.6% |
58.0% |
68.3% |
56.4% |
204.6% |
| ADSL |
-0.5% |
-0.7% |
-1.1% |
-0.2% |
-0.1% |
-0.1% |
-0.3% |
|
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