Almost three-quarters of the UK now using digital TV

by Jennifer Whitehead, brandrepublic.com, Wednesday, 20 December 2006, 11:00am,

LONDON - Nearly three-quarters of the population who watch television in the UK are using digital receivers, Ofcom has revealed.

Its figures show that 9.3m households now have digital terrestrial television on at least one set in the home, up from 6.8m for the third quarter of 2005, and that 800,000 households made the switch to digital in the three months ending in September.

Ofcom also reported that the number of people who have digital television on second or third sets in spare rooms or kitchens is on the rise. There are now almost 8m second sets that are digital, up from 4m in September last year.

Ofcom said: "More households watch digital terrestrial television services than watch traditional analogue services on their main television set with 7m versus 6.4m."

The news comes as the government revealed that the cost of switching poor and disadvantaged people over to digital would be around £600m, to be taken from the TV licence fee.

The government has devised a scheme of financial support to ensure that no one gets left behind when the analogue switch off begins in 2008.

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This article was first published on brandrepublic.com