Freeview Convinces Sceptics To Join Digital Revolution
Freeview is helping to convince large numbers of refuseniks to join the digital revolution, with new figures showing the service is now available in as many as 1.6 million households.
Research commissioned by the BBC and Dixons shows that the digital terrestrial service has sold over 800,000 adapters since its launch in October (see BBC Revives Digital Terrestrial TV With Freeview Launch), bringing the total number in use to 1.6 million.
This makes the service, which is co-owned by the BBC, BSkyB and Crown Castle, officially more popular than its predecessor, ITV Digital, which had around 1.2 million subscribers when it collapsed last April.
The research suggests that Freeview is helping to convince previously hard to reach digital refuseniks of the benefits of multi-channel television, with 83% of the service’s customers claiming not to have considered getting any other system.
The one-off payment and lack of contract was also found to be driving the uptake of the digital terrestrial service, with 65% of customers citing this as the single most important reason for buying the £99 set top receiver.
Just over half of Freeview customers said the BBC’s digital channels, which include the recently launched BBC3, BBC4 and CBeebies, were a significant factor in their purchasing decision, with one in four stating they were of extreme importance.
The BBC’s marketing and communications director, Andy Duncan, said: “We are pleased with the early success and rapid take-up of Freeview and that we are getting our BBC digital TV channel and radio networks to so many new homes.”
It is widely predicted that Freeview will drive the growth of digital TV over the next few years and E-Commerce Minister, Stephen Timms, recently insisted that the platform would be vital to the Government’s plans to switch off the analogue signal by the proposed 2006/2010 deadline (see Government Minister Insists Digital Deadline Will Be Met).
The BBC’s director of strategy and distribution, Carolyn Fairbairn, added: “In the long term, we are committed to making the BBC services universally available free at the point of use and will continue to work hard with Government and the wider industry to ensure this can be achieved.”
Last week the BBC relaunched its interactive television services with improved functionality, in attempt to make them more accessible to digital viewers (see BBC Revamps Interactive Services For Digital Generation).
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk
Recent Television Stories from NewsLine Study Reveals Surge In Children’s TV Programming ITV May Link Advertising Rates To Audience Figures Carlton Secures NTL For Regional Ad Campaign
Subscribers can access ten years of NewsLine articles by clicking the Search button to the left