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; 43.9% of these are digital.
| UK TV Platform Subscriber Figures | |||
| Q4 2002 | Q1 2003 | Quarterly growth rate | |
| Pay TV | |||
| Analogue cable | 1,263,520 | 1,169,665 | -7.4% |
| Digital cable | 2,093,405 | 2,149,802 | 2.7% |
| Total cable | 3,356,925 | 3,319,467 | -1.1% |
| Digital DTH | 6,290,000 | 6,433,000 | 2.3% |
| ADSL | 12,152 | 11,228 | -7.6% |
| Total pay-TV households | 9,659,077 | 9,763,695 | 1.1% |
| Free-to-air (FTA) | |||
| FTA DTT | 1,328,000 | 1,610,000 | 21.2% |
| FTA DTH (estimates) | 558,592 | 659,170 | 18.0% |
| Total FTA households | 1,886,592 | 2,269,170 | 20.3% |
| Total | |||
| Total UK multi-channel households | 11,545,669 | 12,032,865 | 4.2% |
| Total UK digital households | 10,282,149 | 10,863,200 | 5.7% |
| Multi-channel penetration | 46.7% | 48.6% | 1.9% points |
| Digital penetration | 41.6% | 43.9% | 2.3% points |
| Source: ITC, June 2003 | |||
Platforms Shares of the multichannel TV market by platform are as shown.
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 from £351 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.
| DTH (BSkyB) | ||
| Q4 2002 | Q1 2003 | |
| TV homes connected | 6,290,000 | 6,433,000 |
| ARPU | £351 | £364 |
| Churn | 9.4% | 9.3% |
| Base package price | £10.00 | £12.50 |
| Source: ITC, June 2003 | ||
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 by 37,458 to 3.3 million households. The losses were all from the analogue platform, with digital cable actually adding a further 56,397 homes, taking the total to 2.1 million.
| Cable Trends | ||||
| NTL | Telewest | |||
| Q4 2002 | Q1 2003 | Q4 2002 | Q1 2003 | |
| Homes passed | 7,733,000 | 7,749,700 | 4,699,694 | 4,690,343 |
| Total residential subscribers | 2,686,400 | 2,713,500 | 1,758,625 | 1,743,722 |
| TV homes connected | 2,055,300 | 2,037,700 | 1,293,811 | 1,273,545 |
| Digital TV homes connected | 1,229,000 | 1,255,200 | 857,472 | 887,306 |
| TV Penetration rate | 26.6% | 26.3% | 27.5% | 27.2% |
| ARPU | £491.88 | £487.80 | £501.60 | £501.96 |
| Churn rate | 15.9% | 13.0% | 21.5% | 21.8% |
| Base package price | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.50 | £18.50 |
| Source: ITC, June 2003 | ||||
Digital terrestrial TV (DTT), now supplied by Freeview, grew by 282,000 sales quarter on quarter to reach 1.6 million boxes sold.
| DTT Trends | ||
| Q4 2002 | Q1 2003 | |
| Digital TV Homes connected | 1,328,000 | 1,610,000 |
| ITV Digital STB | 600,000 | 600,000 |
| Freeview adapters | 390,000 | 658,000 |
| IDTV sets | 338,000 | 352,000 |
| Source: ITC, June 2003 | ||
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