Digital Television Update - 2012 Q4

Digital Television Update: key findings

• In Q4 2012, 98% of households (25.1m) received digital television over any platform, an increase of nearly 5 percentage points (pp) on Q4 2011 (Figure 1).
• The remaining 2% of households included households that watched television through a connected device (e.g. a games console), households that did not have a TV set and any other households whose TV sets could not receive a digital signal (Figure 2).
• Seventy-five per cent of households watched TV over a digital terrestrial signal in Q4 2012, an increase of 0.5pp on Q4 2011 (Figure 1).
• In Q4 2012, 54% of households subscribed to pay TV, up by 2pp on Q4 2011. Thirty-seven per cent of households subscribed to pay satellite in Q4 2012, the same proportion as in Q4 2011. Thirteen per cent of households subscribed to cable in Q4 2012, which was also the same proportion as in Q4 2011 (Figure 5).
• In Q4 2012, 3.4% of households had multichannel platforms other than digital terrestrial, satellite and cable (for example BT Vision), up by 1.4pp on Q4 2011 (Figure 1).
• There were an estimated 2.12m free-to-view digital satellite households in Q4 2012, up from 2.04m in Q4 2011, according to our survey data (Figure 7).

Background to survey methodology

• This is the final Digital Television Update and follows the completion of the switchover to digital terrestrial television.
• The GfK consumer research used in this report is based on a panel of 12,000 households surveyed quarterly via the internet and by telephone.
• The survey provides data on ownership and acquisition of television sets and other receiving equipment such as set-top boxes.
• The ratio of online to telephone interviews is designed to specifically meet demographic representative quotas. The error margin for the research results is estimated to be within 1-2pp (up to +/-500,000 households).
• GfK's sample was located in Great Britain only and did not contain households in Northern Ireland.