68% Of UK TV Sets Now Digital

Over two-thirds (68%) of the 60 million television sets in the UK are now digitally linked via cable, satellite or digital terrestrial, according to new figures from Ofcom published today.

The Digital Progress Report for the first quarter of 2008 shows that the total number of digitally-linked sets has grown by around seven million from 33.5 million to 40.5 million over the past twelve months as householders focus on converting secondary television sets to digital.

The survey uses new consumer research which gives Ofcom a more accurate view of take-up of digital television in residential households. As a result of this new methodology, the figures for the previous quarter have been restated to allow for a like-for-like comparison.

Under the new methodology, the survey states that the total number of households who have converted their main television set to digital in January, February and March of 2008 was up slightly on the previous quarter from 86.5% to 87.2%.

It also found that there are over 9.6 million homes with DTT on their main television set – an increase of almost 1.3 million over the past twelve months.

Nearly 14 million homes had converted secondary sets to DTT by the first quarter of 2008 bringing the total number of DTT sets to over 23 million.

Ofcom said that Sky grew its UK subscriber base by 43,000 to 8.3 million households, an increase of 332,000 over the past twelve months, while the total number of cable subscribers is now over 3.5 million, up by 36,800 in the first quarter of this year.

Ofcom: 020 7981 3040 www.ofcom.org.uk