Multi-Channel Television Statistics Q2 2004
The total number of UK households with access to digital television increased to 55% in the second quarter of this year, up from just 53% in the previous quarter, according to official figures from communications regulator Ofcom.
The report shows that the total number of British households with access to digital television rose to just over 13.7 million in the three months to June 2004, representing an impressive increase of around 630,000 homes since the first quarter of this year.
Growth continues to be driven by the runaway success of Freeview, which saw uptake increase by 12% in the second quarter to nearly four million households. The BBC-backed service has been boosted by a wide-spread public awareness campaign promoting the benefits of digital terrestrial television.
Overall digital penetration increased by 2.4% during the period, reaching 55.4% of UK households, driving multichannel penetration growth to 59.1%.
| UK TV Platform Subscriber Figures | |||
| Q1 2004 | Q2 2004 | Quarterly growth rate | |
| Pay TV | |||
| Digital cable | 2,408,530 | 2,469,356 | 2.5% |
| Digital satellite (Sky) | 6,956,000 | 7,032,000 | 1.1% |
| ADSL | 8,664 | 9,074 | 4.7% |
| Total digital pay TV households | 9,373,194 | 9,510,400 | 1.2% |
| Free-to-view | |||
| Free-to-view DTT (Freeview) | 3,929,200 | 4,424,485 | 12.6% |
| Free-to-view digital satellite | 231,000 | 305,000 | 32.0% |
| Total free-to-view receivers | 4,160,200 | 4,729,485 | 13.7% |
| Total free-to-view households* | 3,699,067 | 4,194,059 | 13.9% |
| *Adjusted for double counting for houses that receive digital on more than one TV set | |||
| Total | |||
| Total UK pay TV households | 10,289,939 | 10,408,824 | 1.2% |
| Total UK multi-channel households | 13,989,006 | 14,602,883 | 4.4% |
| Multi-channel penetration | 56.7% | 59.1% | 2.4% |
| Total UK digital households | 13,072,261 | 13,704,459 | 4.8% |
| Digital penetration | 53.0% | 55.4% | 2.4% |
| Source: Ofcom, September 2004 | |||
The market share of total multichannel homes by platforms is as shown.
DTT increased its share of digital homes to 28.4% during the quarter, however this came at the expense of Sky which saw its share slide down from 55% in quarter one 2004 to 53.5%, despite adding 76,000 new subscribers.
| Digital Satellite – Pay TV Homes | ||
| Q1 2004 | Q2 2004 | |
| Pay-TV homes* | 6,956,000* | 7,032,000* |
| ARPU | £382 | £380 |
| Churn | 9.4% | 9.7% |
| Base package price | £13.50 | £13.50 |
| *excludes Republic of Ireland | ||
| Source: BSkyB Q2 2004 Results | ||
DTT showed another strong quarter of growth, said Ofcom, adding over 420,000 households, representing an increase of 12.1% quarter-on-quarter, with reduced set-top box and decoder prices being cited as a key driver.
| Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) | ||
| Q1 2004 | Q2 2004 | |
| ITV Digital STB | 500,000 | 500,000 |
| Freeview adapters | 2,832,800 | 3,264,785 |
| IDTV sets | 596,400 | 659,700 |
| Total DTT households | 3,468,067 | 3,889,059 |
| Source: Freeview Q2 sales figures and Ofcom market estimates, September 2004 | ||
UK cable households grew to over 3.36 million by the end June. Overall, the cable industry saw an increase in total subscribers of 24,175, while the number of digital subscribers also continued to grow, reaching over 2.4 million by the end of Q2 2004.
| Cable Trends | ||||
| NTL | Telewest Broadband | |||
| Q1 2004 | Q2 2004 | Q1 2004 | Q2 2004 | |
| Homes passed and marketed | 7,861,100 | 7,798,000 | 4,678,182 | 4,682,777 |
| Total residential subscribers | 2,923,200 | 2,981,500 | 1,742,144 | 1,752,553 |
| TV homes connected | 2,048,900 | 2,070,600 | 1,285,797 | 1,288,272 |
| Digital TV homes connected | 1,371,000 | 1,408,700 | 1,029,759 | 1,052,855 |
| TV penetration rate | 26.1% | 26.6% | 27.5% | 27.5% |
| ARPU | £502.92 | £496.56 | £540.60 | £593.76 |
| Churn rate | 12.4% | 14.4% | 14.4% | 15.2% |
| Basic package price | £18 | £19 | £13.50 | £13.50 |
| Source: Telewest Broadband and NTL Q2 2004 results | ||||
The trends in multichannel TV and DTV penetration are shown in the table below.
| UK Pay-TV Trends, By Platform | |||||||
| Digital Take Up | |||||||
| Q4 2002 | Q1 2003 | Q2 2003 | Q3 2003 | Q4 2003 | Q1 2004 | Q2 2004 | |
| Digital cable | 8.5% | 8.7% | 8.8% | 9.0% | 9.4% | 9.8% | 10.0% |
| Digital satellite | 27.7% | 28.6% | 29.4% | 30.4% | 38.9% | 29.1% | 29.7% |
| DTT | 4.8% | 6.0% | 7.2% | 8.6% | 11.9% | 14.1% | 15.7% |
| ADSL | 0.05% | 0.05% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% |
| Total digital | 41.0% | 43.3% | 45.5% | 48.0% | 50.2% | 53.0% | 55.4% |
| Analogue cable | 5.1% | 4.7% | 4.3% | 4.1% | 4.0% | 3.7% | 3.6% |
| Total multichannel | 46.1% | 48.0% | 49.8% | 52.2% | 54.2% | 56.7% | 59.1% |
| Pay TV Take Up | |||||||
| Cable | 13.6% | 13.4% | 13.1% | 13.2% | 13.4% | 13.5% | 13.6% |
| Digital Satellite | 25.4% | 26.0% | 26.4% | 27.0% | 28.0% | 28.2% | 28.4% |
| DTT* | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| ADSL | 0.05% | 0.05% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.04% |
| Total | 39.1% | 39.4% | 39.6% | 40.3% | 41.5% | 41.7% | 42.1% |
| Source: Ofcom, September 2004 | |||||||