Freeview HD reaches 4.4 million

The number of Freeview HD units sold in the UK has now reached 4.4 million by the end of December 2011.

These figures follow strong quarterly sales of 1.3 million Freeview HD televisions and boxes sold in Q4 2011, with Freeivew HD TV sales doubling year on year in December.

According to BARB, in the 18 months since the subscription-free HD service launched, 2 million homes are actively using the service – an achievement made in half the time it took Sky HD to reach a comparable user base.

Freeview also reports that of the 2.6 million Smart TVs that have been sold to date across the UK over 90% are Freeview HD televisions, according to figures from GfK. Viewers can access 4 HD channels (BBC One HD, The BBC HD Channel, ITV1 HD and Channel 4 HD), up to 50 standard definition TV channels and when connected to the internet, a world of additional entertainment such as BBC iPlayer, YouTube and the rental movie service LOVEFiLM.

Ilse Howling, Managing Director of Freeview, said: “2012 is set to be a landmark year for the television industry and we have entered it with a bang as a result of fantastic Freeview HD sales figures.

“Television remains an incredibly important part of people’s lives and Freeview has continued to provide the most-loved programmes in the format people want without the need to pay for a subscription. Our focus now is to ensure we continue to evolve the service and give viewers what they want over the next ten years.”

The roll out of Freeview HD will be completed in October. Currently 81% of the UK can receive the service, by the Olympics this will increase to 85% and the whole country will be able to receive Freeview HD at the end of digital switchover.

The number of homes with Freeview on a main television set is currently 10.6 million, according to BARB.