One in five digital households in the UK takes free-to-air services, according to the latest figures from the Independent Television Commission (ITC).
Over the last six months, the uptake of free-to-air (FTA) digital services – including FTA satellite – has accounted for 60% of the growth of the UK’s digital TV (DTV) market, according to the ITC.
Overall, the number of multichannel TV homes rose by 4.2% between Q4 2002 and Q1 this year and the sector now accounts for 48.6% of UK households.
Platforms
BSkyB gained an additional 143,000 subscribers, taking its customer base to 6.4 million. Its churn has fallen even further to just 9.3% – the lowest ever figure for Sky. In addition, annualised average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to £364, in line with a rise in the basic package price from £10.00 to £12.50.
Sky remains on target to hit 7 million subscribers by the end of the year.
The ITC estimates that around one quarter of former Sky customers may use their set-top boxes to receive FTA channels. This would equate to approximately 367,000 homes.
In addition, just under 300,000 households are estimated to have taken advantage of Sky’s FTA offer, which was reinstated at the beginning of the year. This puts the total number of FTA satellite homes at around 660,000, according to these ITC estimates.
The cable sector continued to shed subscribers, down to 3.3 million households. The losses were all from the analogue platform, with digital cable actually adding a further 56,397 homes.
Digital terrestrial TV (DTT), now supplied by Freeview, grew quarter on quarter to reach 1.6 million boxes sold.
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