Freeview reaches 16.7 million UK homes

The take-up of multichannel TV on consumers' main TV sets now stands at 88% of all homes, according to latest Ofcom figures.

The regulator also reported that the number of households with digital terrestrial television grew by more than two million during the second quarter.
Ofcom's Digital Television Update for Q2 2008 revealed that there are 16.7 million Freeview homes in the UK, boosted by sales of more than two million DTT set-top boxes or integrated digital TV sets.

Ofcom said the number of free-to-view digital satellite homes increased by almost 120,000 to 840,000 in the quarter, contributing more than a third of net additions to multichannel main sets. More than 40% of households (around 10 million) now have some form of free-to-view digital television (either DTT or free-to-view satellite) on their main set.

Meanwhile, the total number of homes with satellite (either pay or free-to-view) in Q2 reached 37.3% or almost 9.6 million. Pay satellite homes accounted for around 8.7 million (91%) of these, with free-to-view making up the remainder.
Cable was the primary viewing platform in 12.5% of homes in Q2, said Ofcom. Virgin Media reported net additions of around 24,000 new subscribers taking their total subscriber base to over 3.5 million.

Source: BrandRepublic