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Trends in the UK Digital Television Market

According to DMEurope, 72.5 percent of UK television households (numbering 18.2 million) view digital television � up from 69.5 percent at the end of 2005, says a report prepared by Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries.

Digital satellite is the UK's most popular digital television platform viewed by 8.3 million, or 30 percent of homes. Of these digital satellite viewers nearly 7.7 million subscribe to BSkyB pay services and 645,000 receive free-to-view satellite services. Fewer than 1 million BSkyB households view pay television on more than one television set through BSkyB's Multiroom subscription service.

Nearly 7.1 million households view Freeview, compared to around 6.4 million who do not yet have digital television. This marks the first time that Freeview has overtaken traditional analogue television on primary sets in the home. Freeview sales for January to March were up 40 percent on the same period in 2005 at over 1.2 million, making this the third successive quarter in which sales have exceeded the 1 million mark. Estimates suggest that 38 percent of Freeview sales are intended for secondary television sets in the home.

Just over 3.3 million households view cable television, increasing slightly over the last quarter. Over 70,000 digital cable subscribers were added during the quarter, mainly as a result of analogue subscribers transferring to digital services.

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