UK Digital TV Penetration Could Overtake Internet, Says ITC
Digital television penetration is on target to exceed internet penetration in the UK if current growth rates continue, according to the Independent Television Commission (ITC).
According to Q3 figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), approximately 46% of homes have access to the internet (see Home Internet Usage Still Growing). The ITC says that if growth rates are maintained – and terrestrial service Freeview continues to grow strongly – DTV could overtake internet access in the home.
Freeview had added 300,000 new digital terrestrial (DTT) homes to the total by the end of 2002, according to estimates, taking its total at that time to 1.3 million. More recent figures put the number of users at over 1.4 million (see DTV Europe Remains A ‘Distant Dream’, Says Screen Digest).
BSkyB’s digital satellite service added 227,000 subscribers in Q4, taking the total at year-end to 6.3 million.
Overall, multichannel penetration in the UK increased by 1.8% points. Including analogue services, overall multi-channel penetration is estimated to have increased to almost 46.8% or 11.5 million households.
The ITC says that by the end of this year it is likely that the majority of households in the UK will have access to more than the five terrestrial services.
| UK TV Platform Subscriber Figures | |||
| Q3 2002 | Q4 2002 | Quarterly growth rate | |
| Pay TV | |||
| Analogue cable* | 1,334,105 | 1,334,105 | n/a |
| Digital cable* | 2,044,085 | 2,044,085 | n/a |
| Total cable | 3,378,190 | 3,378,190 | n/a |
| Digital DTH | 6,062,548 | 6,290,000 | 3.8% |
| ADSL | 16,699 | 12,152 | 2.4% |
| Total pay-TV households | 9,457,437 | 9,680,342 | |
| Free-to-air (FTA) | |||
| FTA DTT | 1,028,000 | 1,328,000 | 29.2% |
| FTA DTH (estimates) | 546,875 | 558,592 | 2.1% |
| Total FTA households | 1,574,875 | 1,886,592 | 19.8% |
| Total | |||
| Total UK multi-channel households | 11,032,312 | 11,566,934 | 4.8% |
| Total UK digital households | 9,698,207 | 10,232,829 | 5.5% |
| Multi-channel penetration | 45.0% | 46.8% | 1.8% points |
| Digital penetration | 39.5% | 41.4% | 1.8% points |
| *Telewest and NTL figures not yet available; ITC has assumed no change | |||
| Source: ITC, March 2003 | |||
Platforms BSkyB continues to dominate the multichannel market with an overall share of 59.2%, a marginal decrease from a share of 59.9% in Q3 (see UK Multi-Channel TV Sector Grows By 2.8% In Third Quarter). However, Sky increased its lead in the pay-TV market this quarter with a share of 65%.
Shares of the multi-channel TV market by platform are as shown.
As figures from NTL and Telewest are not yet available, an updated set of multi-channel figures will be released by the ITC following the release of the companies’ results.
Sky’s growth rates put it on target for reaching 7 million subscribers by December 2003. Customer retention was higher over Q4, with annualised churn rates falling from 9.6% in Q3 to 9.4% in Q4. This represents the lowest ever level of churn for Sky Digital.
| DTH (BSkyB) | ||
| Q2 | Q3 | |
| Â TV homes connected | 6,062,548 | 6,290,000 |
| Â Digital TV homes connected | 6,062,548 | 6,290,000 |
| Â ARPU | £348 | £351 |
| Â Churn | 9.6% | 9.4% |
| Â Base package price | £10 | £10 |
| Source: ITC, March 2003 | ||
Freeview added around 300,000 customers to its user base in Q4 – a quarter on quarter increase of 29.2%. The ITC estimates that sales of Freeview adapters accounted for about 90% of this growth, the remainder being DTT idTVs.
Freeview eclipsed ITV Digital’s performance during its first 16 weeks when a total of 110,000 subscribers signed up to the service – about 7,000 a week (see Freeview Customers Surpass ITV Digital’s Total).
| DTT Trends | ||
| Q3 | Q4 | |
| Â Digital TV Homes connected | 1,028,000 | 1,328,000 |
| Â ITV Digital STB | 600,000 | 600,000 |
| Â Other STB | 120,000 | 390,000 |
| Â IDTV sets | 308,000 | 338,000 |
| Source: ITC, March 2003 | ||
For the Q3 2002 figures click UK Multi-Channel TV Sector Grows By 2.8% In Third Quarter.