New digital terrestrial television operator, Freeview, has sold over half a million set top boxes in the four months since its launch, according to the BBC’s director of marketing and communications, Andy Duncan.
Speaking at the FT New Media & Broadcasting conference earlier today, Duncan confirmed that Freeview has overtaken its now collapsed predecessor, ITV Digital, with the number of digital terrestrial homes approaching 1.4 million this month.
In addition to the 500,000 boxes sold through retail outlets, there are thought to be at least 800,000 former ITV Digital viewers using their old set top boxes to receive the service, which is co-owned by the BBC, BSkyB and Crown Castle.
Duncan described the digital terrestrial service as the “missing piece of the jigsaw” in moving to a fully digital Britain. “There is now a major new way for millions of our licence fee payers to receive all our services and the Freeview format appeals to the very audiences that had previously been least likely to go digital,” he claimed.
Freeview has been well received since its launch in October last year and a report from influential broker, Morgan Stanley, suggests that the success of the new digital terrestrial platform has hit ITV harder than expected (see Freeview Launch Hits ITV Harder Than Expected).
