5% of UK households own an internet connected smart TV

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has released its 2012 Communications Market report.

TV Highlights:

• Viewers watched an average of four hours per day in 2011 up from 3.7 hours in 2004.
• Over a third (37%) of UK adults with home internet watch online catch-up TV.
• Some 5% of UK households now own an internet connected smart TV
• More than one third (35%) of TVs sold in the UK in the first quarter of 2012 were either super-large (33 to 42) or jumbo sized (43 and over). This compares with just 1% of TVs of these sizes that were sold in 2001.
• Total UK TV industry revenues increased by 4.9% year on year in 2011, reaching 12.3bn. This was driven by increases in subscriptions (up 8.3%) and advertising (up 2.1%).

Digital TV take-up in the UK is almost universal, as digital switchover (DSO) enters its final phase. The percentage of UK homes with digital TV increased by three percentage points; from 93% in Q1 2011 to 96.2% in Q1 2012, as more regions switched to digital.

UK television industry

                      2005  2006  2007  2008  2009  2010  2011
                      ----  ----  ----  ----  ----  ----  ----
Digital TV take-up     62%   70%   86%   87%   91%   93%   96%

The proportion of UK homes with analogue terrestrial only has diminished steadily over the last ten years, from an estimated 14.2 million households in Q1 2001, when it was the predominant multichannel platform, to just 500,000 in Q1 2012. Conversely, the number of homes with digital satellite and digital cable has risen over the corresponding time period, from 4.9 million homes in Q1 2001 to 9.3 million homes in Q1 2012 and from 1.2 million homes to 3.7 million homes respectively.