Ofcom releases 4Q 2010 UK Digital Television Update

Ofcom consumer survey results for the fourth quarter of 2010 show that take-up of digital television in UK households stood at 92.5%, up by 1.1 percentage points year on year.

Consumers are continuing to convert additional sets in the home. 75.8% of all secondary TV sets had been converted to digital by the end of December 2010, up by 6.9 percentage points in a year.

Taking these figures together, 83.2% of all TV sets had converted to digital television by the end of Q4 2010.

Sales of DTT-enabled equipment reached 3.9 million units in Q4, down by 18.6% on Q4 2009. Integrated digital television sets (IDTVs) accounted for over 80.4% of sales in the quarter (3.1 million units). Almost all TV sets sold (99.3%) included an integrated digital decoder. Freeview set-top boxes accounted for over 756,000 sales in the quarter, down 39.4% on Q4 2009.

In 2010 12.8 million DTT units (IDTVs and set-top boxes) were sold, compared to 14.7 million in the previous year, a decrease of 12.6%.

Digital terrestrial television (DTT) equipment quarterly sales:

DTT quarterly sales (000's)              Q4 2009  Q1 2010  Q2 2010  Q3 2010  Q4 2010
                                         -------  -------  -------  -------  -------
Freeview set-top boxes                     1,247      855      724      603      756
Integrated Digital Televisions (IDTVs)     3,491    2,540    2,341    1,896    3,099
Total sales                                4,738    3,395    3,065    2,499    3,855
DTT DVR sales*                               329      207      153      146      290

Source: Sales figures from GfK, as adjusted by Freeview. The 5% upwards adjustment represents Freeview’s
estimate of the number of DTT set-top boxes and IDTVs sold in Northern Ireland and offshore islands.
* DVR sales include devices that combine DVR and DVD recording functionality. DVRs sales listed above are also
included in the total sales.

More: Q4 2010 DTV Update; Q4 2010 DTV Charts