Digital TV Penetration Closes On 60% In Q4 2004

Ofcom’s latest Digital Television Update, published today, reports that digital television penetration reached 59.4% in the fourth quarter of last year, stopping just short of 60% and representing an increase of 3.5% points on the previous quarter.

Ofcom also found that, by 31 December 2004, BSkyB had added 177,000 subscribers, bringing its total number of UK customers to 7.26 million.

The number of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) only households, meanwhile, rose to around 4.59 million, according to the regulator. The increase is approximately 678,000 up from the previous quarter, with Ofcom citing Freeview’s Q4 2004 sales figures, GfK market research and its own market estimates to justify the claims.

The regulator also found that there are now almost 5 million free-to-view digital households, consisting of Freeview viewers as well as free-to-view digital satellite homes. The total number of homes using the latter is estimated by Ofcom to be around 385,000, including viewers who are no longer Sky subscribers but still receive the public service channels through their set-top box.

However, cable providers remained comparatively stagnant, with their total number of subscribers hovering around the 3.3 million mark at the end of the year. Within that number, however, digital cable accounts for just over 2.5 million. The total represents 17% of the nation’s digital homes, with 11,500 additions in Q4 2004.

3.2% of households continued to subscribe to analogue cable during the fourth quarter of the year, bringing the total proportion of households receiving some form of multi-channel television to just over 63.0%.

The regulator stated that an adjustment has been made to account for the number of households which have more than one television receiving digital broadcasts, and that its latest estimates suggest that 25% of sales of Freeview set-top boxes in the last quarter of 2004 were bought for use with second televisions.

The first area of Britain lost its analogue TV signal completely this week, with the Welsh villages of Ferryside and Llansteffan chosen as a testing ground for a digital-only television landscape. The decision to switch off the analogue signal to the villages’ 500 homes was taken after a survey found that 98% wished to convert to digital TV permanently (see First Welsh Villages To Drop Analogue TV Tonight).

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

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