Freeview 'on way to becoming UK favourite'

[BGonaSTICK]

Freeview is celebrating its best Christmas sales ever, with more than 2m digital terrestrial receivers including set-top boxes, integrated digital TVs and digital TV recorders, purchased in the last quarter of 2006.

Media regulator Ofcom said 7m UK households were watching Freeview on their main TV sets at the end of the third quarter last year. While Freeview has not translated the Christmas quarter figures into main set penetration, general manager Cary Wakefield said the performance meant Freeview was "well on our way to becoming the nation's favourite way to watch TV."

Sales of digital TV recorders incorporating a Freeview receiver doubled on the year, from 43,000 in Q4 2005 to 90,000 in Q4 2006. "With the forthcoming consumer launch of Freeview Playback—the new digital TV recorder brand which will give consumers greater flexibility with their TV viewing and recording, sales of these products and growth of the category can only be expected to continue," said a Freeview spokesman.

Last month two research reports gave Freeview further cause for optimism. Media analyst DGA said Freeview would be the main beneficiary of digital TV take-up by older viewers, while JupiterResearch forecast that over the five-year transition to digital-only TV, some 4.6m UK homes would select Freeview while Sky would gain a further 1.2m subscribers, leaving ntl with an additional 700,000 subscribers. IPTV operators such as BT with its recently launched BT Vision service, and Tiscali with its Tiscali TV proposition, would gain a further 1m subscribers between them.