A new report from JupiterResearch claims that Freeview will be the big digital switchover winner in the next five years, with pay-TV companies such as Sky and NTL:Telewest set for a struggle to win customers.
The report estimates that there are 5.3 million households in the UK which are still only able to receive analogue television, adding that over the next five years 4.6 million households will go for Freeview’s DTT service.
Over the same period, Sky is estimated to bring in 1.2 million new households whilst NT:Telewest is forecast to attract 700,000, with IPTV services like HomeChoice and BT Vision predicted to draw around 1 million.
Nate Elliott, senior analyst at Jupiter Research, said: “Even though the digital switch-over offers tremendous opportunity for TV operators, effectively introducing government mandated subscriber churn, most are failing to take advantage.
“Nearly two-thirds of new digital TV households in Europe last year chose digital terrestrial TV (Freeview in the UK) rather than pay digital platforms like cable, satellite or IPTV.”
In the period to 2012, JupiterResearch says that Freeview will become the main television provider in more households than any other platform.
JupiterResearch estimates that by the end of 2006 Freeview was in 10.1m households with Sky in 8.6m and NTL:Telewest in 3.3m.
Elliot added: “Consumers value TV more than other digital services, they spend more time with TV than other products offered as bundles as triple or quad-play offerings. This means they can fulfil their biggest need by signing up to Freeview.”
A recent report from Point Topic calimed that Freeview is threatening Sky’s dominance in parts of the UK (see Freeview Threatening Sky’s Dominance).
Meanwhile, IMS Research released a forecast which said that worldwide digital terrestrial TV (DTT) is expected to more than triple over the next five years, with growth driven primarily in Western Europe (see Global DTT Expected to Treble).
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