According to Ofcom figures, Freeview achieved near-record sales of 2.4 million digital television receivers in the third quarter of 2007. The media regulator’s quarterly digital TV progress report, for the three months to the end of September, showed that 361,700 households that had been analogue-only went digital during the period. This was down from 944,200 in the previous quarter.

Digital terrestrial TV service Freeview continued to rapidly grow its potential audience, posting its second highest quarter of DTT set top box and digital TV set sales, up 70 per cent on the same period last year.

However, increasingly Freeview is tapping into the market for consumers looking for a second digital TV set at home. The number of Freeview digital receivers used with secondary TV sets raced ahead of the number used as the primary set for the first time. Of the 19.4 million Freeview-enabled sets in the UK, 10.1 million are now secondary sets compared to 9.3 million primary sets.

Overall, 85.1 per cent of UK households now receive digital television services on their main set – via Freeview, digital satellite or cable TV – up from 84 per cent at the end of June and 80.5 per cent at the end of March.

The number of multichannel households, which also includes Virgin Media analogue cable homes, has reached 86.1 per cent. Ofcom said that digital terrestrial television platform Freeview spearheaded the upward trend in the quarter to the end of September, accounting for 57 per cent of the net growth in digital TV homes, or 193,000 sets.

Freeview is now the primary digital TV provider in 36.6 per cent of UK homes. Satellite is at 35.9 per cent, with 3.9 per cent of that from free-to-view satellite, and cable is at 13.4 per cent.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTT/DSO