ITC Cable Statistics Q4 2002

Digital television penetration is on-target to exceed internet penetration in the UK if current growth rates continue, according to the Independent Television Commission (ITC).

The Commission’s latest multi-channel TV figures, covering Q4 and full-year 2002, show that 41.4% of UK households had a digital TV (DTV) system by the end of last year. This is the first time that penetration has exceeded 40%, says the ITC.

According to Q3 figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), approximately 46% of homes have access to the internet (see Forecasts). The ITC says that if growth rates are maintained – and terrestrial service Freeview continues to grow strongly – DTV could overtake internet access in the home.

Freeview had added 300,000 new digital terrestrial (DTT) homes to the total by the end of 2002, according to estimates, taking its total at that time to 1.3 million. More recent figures put the number of users at over 1.4 million.

BSkyB’s digital satellite service added 227,000 subscribers in Q4, taking the total at year-end to 6.3 million.

Overall, multichannel penetration in the UK increased by 1.8% points. Including analogue services, overall multi-channel penetration is estimated to have increased to almost 46.8% or 11.5 million households.

The ITC says that by the end of this year it is likely that the majority of households in the UK will have access to more than the five terrestrial services.

Platforms BSkyB continues to dominate the multichannel market with an overall share of 59.2%, a marginal decrease from a share of 59.9% in Q3. However, Sky increased its lead in the pay-TV market this quarter with a share of 65%.

Shares of the multi-channel TV market by platform are as shown.

As figures from NTL and Telewest are not yet available, an updated set of multi-channel figures will be released by the ITC following the release of the companies’ results.

Sky’s growth rates put it on target for reaching 7 million subscribers by December 2003. Customer retention was higher over Q4, with annualised churn rates falling from 9.6% in Q3 to 9.4% in Q4. This represents the lowest ever level of churn for Sky Digital.

Freeview added around 300,000 customers to its user base in Q4 – a quarter on quarter increase of 29.2%. The ITC estimates that sales of Freeview adapters accounted for about 90% of this growth, the remainder being DTT idTVs.

Freeview eclipsed ITV Digital’s performance during its first 16 weeks when a total of 110,000 subscribers signed up to the service – about 7,000 a week.

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