New figures from media watchdog Ofcom have revealed 65.9% of UK households watching digital television, up from 63.0% in the previous quarter.
According to Ofcom’s figures, the total number of households viewing digital television grew by more than 760,000 year on year to almost 16.5 million. In total there are now more than 6.3 million free-to-view digital households (Freeview homes plus free-to-view satellite homes), leaving 10.2 million subscription customers.
The popularity of free-to-air services continues to grow, with more than one million Freeview set-top boxes and integrated televisions being sold in Q3, representing a 55% increase year on year. The number of households with Freeview as their only source of digital television viewing is also estimated to have grown, reaching around 5.8 million by the end of September 2005 – up by around 600,000 homes during the quarter.
Meanwhile, Sky added 48,000 subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total number of UK subscribers to 7.5 million at the end of Q3 2005.
Ofcom’s latest estimates show that around 545,000 British homes currently receive free-to-view digital satellite services, with this figure including viewers who are no longer Sky subscribers but still receive the public service channels through their set-top box.
Digital cable subscribers increased by more than 43,300 in the quarter, accounting for over 2.6 million of the total cable television homes. The number of subscribers to cable television as a whole saw a slight dip during the quarter, settling just below 3.3 million. The dip was a result of reduced analogue cable subscribers which were not replaced sufficiently by digital cable subscriptions in the same period.
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