Digital TV reaches nearly half of UK households

Tuesday, 24 June 2003 12:00 AM

Free-to-air digital services - both terrestrial and satellite - are now watched in one in five UK homes.

That's according to the latest report from the Independent Television Commission, which has shown that digital take-up in all forms has increased, with particular interest being shown in the non-subscription Freeview package that was launched in October last year.

Free-to-air digital has accounted for 60% of the growth in the UK digital TV market the ITC's 'Multichannel Quarterly' claimed, with digital penetration estimated to have increased to nearly 44% as of March this year.

Digital-terrestrial television showed "substantial growth" over the quarter reaching 1.6 million households.

Sky has added more than 143,000 paying subscribers, leading the pay-TV market with 6.4 million UK households.

And cable also contributed to the growth in digital penetration by adding over 56,000 digital subscribers, with just over two million homes now receiving digital cable.

The improved take-up - which will come as good news to the Government - is thought largely to be due to the one-off payment for the digiboxes, which appealed to many consumers who do not want to be tied down to a contract.

And the cost of the boxes - around £100 at the moment - is due to fall with new manufacturer Lidcom about to launch set-top boxes at just £60 this summer.

The Government has pledged to switch off analogue TV signals between 2006 and 2010, but will not be able to do so unless 95% of households have converted to digital by that date.

Critics of DTT have claimed that although there are up to 30 channels available through Freeview, many are news or music-based, while popular channels such as BBC Three do not start airing until 7pm.

They claim that despite the positive early response from consumers, sales will start to slow. A survey at the end of last year showed that just one in ten people who did not have access to digital TV were "very likely" to buy a digibox in the next 12 months.

And there are concerns that up to a third of the country still cannot access DTT services, althoguh almost all households can receive digital from BSKyB.

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