Strong 2007 Sales For Freeview

Freeview sales for 2007 hit an all-time high with 9.7 million Freeview branded products sold, an increase of 64% year-on-year.

The Gfk Q4 figures also reflect the success of Christmas sales with 3.8 million purchases, Freeview’s best quarterly figures to date.

Freeview Playback, which now accounts for half of the total DTR market received saw sales jump by 78% in December.

The total number of Freeview Playback products stood at more than a quarter of a million by the end of 2007.

iDTVs and STB sales continued to be strong during Q4, with 2.1 million iDTVs being sold in the quarter, an increase of 133% on the previous year.

Freeview set top boxes, largely bought to convert second sets, grew by 26% year-on-year and there are around 19 million remaining TVs to convert, according to Gfk.

However, a recent report from the National Audit Office said that there are still 26 million television sets in the UK which need to be converted or replaced before digital switchover (see 26m TV Sets Still To Go Digital).

Ilse Howling, Freeview’s general manager, said of today’s figures: “Freeview continues to be a truly compelling offer and the latest sales figures further cement our position as the most popular digital platform in the UK.

“More than half the homes in the country now have Freeview and the value of Freeview Playback is set to grow further for these homes and the millions of others with additional sets still to convert.”

Sky recently announced that it had 167,000 net additions in the last three months of 2007, taking its total pay-TV subscriber figure to 8.8 million (see Sky Pay-TV Subscriptions Reach 8.8 Million).

Virgin Media added 61,100 new subscribers for its cable TV service in the last three months of 2007, giving it 4.8 million in total (see Virgin Media Enjoys Subscriber Boost).

Freeview: 08708 80 99 80 www.freeview.co.uk