Freeview viewing figures soar

net1

The latest digital TV viewing figures from Ofcom showed the number of households receiving free terrestrial television service Freeview rose 12% in the second quarter of this year.

Although Sky also gained subscribers, remaining the dominant player with more than 7m customers, its share of the digital TV market slipped to 53.5% from 55%. The cable operators also lost out to Freeview over the quarter, with their share of digital households falling slightly to 18%, compared to Freeview's 28.4%.

According to Ofcom, well over half of UK homes have digital TV. At the end of the second quarter, 55.4% of British homes had digital television, compared with 53% in the first quarter and with 45.5% a year ago. By 30 June 2004, digital television penetration increased to 13,704,459. This represents an increase in overall penetration of 2.4%, with an additional 630,000 households adopting digital television during the quarter.

The UK Government said last week that it plans to switch off the analogue signal by 2012 and is hoping that by then at least 90% of households would have embraced digital.