Share of viewing for non-terrestrial channels declined slightly for the first time in a year, according to the IPA figures.
The IPA said that the main beneficiary of this was ITV, who put in a strong performance particularly in the first half of the quarter.
Digital reception continued to grow at a rapid rate and now stands at 72.0% of all television households. This is primarily being driven by digital terrestrial whose percentage leapt from 30.2% to 34.9% in the last quarter.
ITV1+GMTV’s audience share reached 19.9% in Q4, up from 17.9% in Q3 2006, although a decline on the 22.3% recorded in Q4 2005. Channel 4’s share was at 8.8% in the fourth quarter of the year.
BBC One saw its audience share decline slightly, down from 22.7% in Q3, to 22.5% in Q4 2006, whilst BBC 2 saw a slight increase, from 8.3% in Q3 TO 8.8% in Q4.
Five saw its audience share decrease slightly period on period, down from 5.8% in the previous period to 5.5% in Q4.
Lynne Robinson, research director of the IPA, said: “The latest quarter’s results show the popularity of digital terrestrial whose household penetration has grown by nearly ten percentage points in the last year.”
Recent research carried out for the BBC said that the UK could lose between £4.1 billion and £15.6 billion in private and social value if high definition channels on the Freeview platform are not developed (see UK To Lose Billions If HD Channels On Freeview Not Developed).
In March, Ofcom revealed that more than one million UK households converted to digital television in the three months to the end of December last year (see Last Quarter Of 2006 Sees More Than One Million Get Digital TV).
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