Almost half of UK television sets are connected to digital

Up on last quarter and last year

15 March 2007 19:52 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Almost half (48.5%) of the UK’s 60 million television sets are connected to a digital device as the UK prepares its self for the digital switch over ahead, thanks to the popularity of Freeview.

According to the research, some 700,000 analogue terrestrial homes acquired Freeview for the first time during the period, accounting for 70% of the growth in digital television during the quarter.

Freeview devices are now in 10.6 million homes (up from 9.3 million in Q3 2006), 7.7 million of which are connected to the main set in the home, typically in the living room.
Over one in four (25.6%) of the UK’s television sets is now connected to a Freeview device.

The overall results are up by almost five percent from the previous quarter and nearly 10% up on 2005's figures.
According to Ofcom's research during the last quarter a further 1 million UK homes acquired digital television for the first time.

In total, 77.2% of homes now have some form of digital television, up from 73.3% in the third quarter of 2006 and 69.5% at the end of 2005.

The quarter also saw continued growth in the number of secondary sets converted to digital. Over 9 million second sets are now connected to a digital device up from 7.9 million last quarter and just over 6 million a year ago.

The town of Whitehaven in Cumbria will be the first place to turn off the old analogue signal on 17 October.

After the switchover, all television in the region will be digital. Any household that doesn’t have a television set or video recorder that is not converted to digital when the switchover takes place will no longer be able to receive programmes.