Freeview Overtakes Sky

LONDON, June 20: According
to new figures from Ofcom, subscriptions to Freeview have risen to 8.4 million
for the first quarter of this year, surpassing BSkyB’s 8 million subscribers.

According to the British
media regulator, 80.5 percent of U.K. homes have access to digital TV, a total
of 20.4 million homes, up from 77.2 percent in the previous quarter. During the
quarter, 869,000 U.K. homes acquired digital television for the first time,
following over a million additions the previous quarter.

In total, 1.96 million
Freeview devices (set-top-boxes plus integrated digital televisions) were sold
during the quarter, up from 1.2 million in the first quarter of 2006. Digital
terrestrial television accounted for 81 percent of the growth in the digital
television market during the quarter. Sky grew its customer base by 32,020
during the quarter. Free-to-view satellite added 70,000 homes. In terms of
cable TV services, there were 3.4 million subscribers at the end of the
quarter. An additional 19,000 homes took a broadband television service during
the quarter, an increase of 44.2 percent on the previous quarter. The total
number of homes now receiving television over broadband stands at 62,000.