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The appeal of the digital channels available on Freeview has been called into question by new research showing that owners of the digital terrestrial boxes spend more than 80% of their viewing time watching the five traditional terrestrial channels.
Digital channels accounted for 17% of all viewing in Freeview homes during March, according to audience research body Barb. During the corresponding period last year, subscribers to ITV Digital, the defunct pay service that Freeview was set up to replace, spent double the amount of time watching digital channels.
Analysts believe the poor viewing figures for Freeview's digital channels are due to the absence of pay services like UK Gold, E4 and various sports and movie offerings that existed on ITV Digital.
Freeview channels include BBC3, BBC4, QVC and ITV2. The early success of Freeview, a joint venture between BBC, BSkyB and transmission firm Crown Castle, has exceeded expectations since its launch in October last year. By early March 500,000 of the plug-in-and-play boxes had been sold taking the total number of digital terrestrial homes to nearly 1.4m.
Andy Duncan, BBC's marketing director, said Freeview purchasers appeared satisfied and cautioned against reading too much into early viewing figures.
"They're quite happy paying their £99 to get two or three extra channels and not too worried if they don't watch the rest because their overall viewing experience has been enhanced," he said.
"Even with the 200 or so channels available in pay homes, most people tend not to regularly watch more than a dozen or so core channels."
Digital channels accounted for 17% of all viewing in Freeview homes during March, according to audience research body Barb. During the corresponding period last year, subscribers to ITV Digital, the defunct pay service that Freeview was set up to replace, spent double the amount of time watching digital channels.
Analysts believe the poor viewing figures for Freeview's digital channels are due to the absence of pay services like UK Gold, E4 and various sports and movie offerings that existed on ITV Digital.
Freeview channels include BBC3, BBC4, QVC and ITV2. The early success of Freeview, a joint venture between BBC, BSkyB and transmission firm Crown Castle, has exceeded expectations since its launch in October last year. By early March 500,000 of the plug-in-and-play boxes had been sold taking the total number of digital terrestrial homes to nearly 1.4m.
Andy Duncan, BBC's marketing director, said Freeview purchasers appeared satisfied and cautioned against reading too much into early viewing figures.
"They're quite happy paying their £99 to get two or three extra channels and not too worried if they don't watch the rest because their overall viewing experience has been enhanced," he said.
"Even with the 200 or so channels available in pay homes, most people tend not to regularly watch more than a dozen or so core channels."
