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Digital TV update - Q2 2010

Digital terrestrial television (DTT) equipment sales

3.19 DTT equipment sales in Q2 2010 reached almost 3.1 million; this was up by 14% on the corresponding quarter last year. Integrated digital televisions (IDTVs) accounted for over three-quarters of these sales (over 2.3 million), while the number of set-top-box sales reached almost 724,000 in Q2.

3.20 Year on year, IDTV sales were up by over 336,000, or 17%, taking total sales in the 12 months to the end of Q2 2010 to 10.5 million. This compared to 9.1 million in the previous year. During Q2, almost all TV sets sold (99.5%) included a digital tuner.

3.21 Annual sales of set-top boxes reached just over 3.5 million in the year to Q2 2010, down 12% from 4.0 million in the previous 12-month period. This decrease might be explained by higher sales of integrated TVs along with the increasing maturity of the DTT platform.

3.22 Cumulative sales of DTT DVRs (digital video recorders) reached over 3.75 million by the end of Q2 2010, with over 150,000 sales in the quarter. This represented just over a fifth (21%) of all DTT set-top-box sales in the quarter.

3.23 In March 2010 Freeview launched its HD service, with initial coverage of 4.5 million homes, and had increased to over 50% of the UK by June 2010. By the end of 2010 coverage is expected to reach 60% of the UK and 98.5% by 2012.

3.24 Since Freeview’s launch in October 2002, total sales of DTT devices have reached 60 million units, comprising over 32 million IDTVs and almost 28 million DTT set-top boxes (Figure 14).


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