June 19, 2006
Terrestrial service Freeview is set to overtake rival Sky to become the UK's most popular digital television service by year-end.
The popularity of Freeview recorded an 8.3% year-on-year increase in market share and now serves 27.3% of all UK households, according to a report by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
Digital satellite television, almost completely dominated by Sky Digital, holds 31.5% of market share, recording a 2% year-on-year increase.
If digital terrestrial TV continues to increase its market share by 2% per quarter, as the IPA recorded in 2005, it will pass satellite as the UK's most popular television platform by the fourth quarter this year.
Almost 7.1m households have Freeview, compared with around 6.4m yet to take up digital television.
Digital satellite is viewed by 8.3m homes, of which almost 7.7m subscribe to BSkyB services and 645,000 receive free-to-view satellite services. Cable television is watched in 3.3m households.
MediaGuardian
Topic: Freeview set to overtake Sky Digital (Read 877 times)