Ofcom publishes Q4 2012 UK Digital Television Update

Ofcom, the communications regulator for the UK, has released its Digital Television Update for the fourth quarter of 2012.

Digital Television Update: key findings

• In Q4 2012, 98% of households (25.1m) received digital television over any platform, an increase of nearly 5 percentage points (pp) on Q4 2011.
• The remaining 2% of households included households that watched television through a connected device (e.g. a games console), households that did not have a TV set and any other households whose TV sets could not receive a digital signal.
• Seventy-five per cent of households watched TV over a digital terrestrial signal in Q4 2012, an increase of 0.5pp on Q4 2011.
• In Q4 2012, 54% of households subscribed to pay TV, up by 2pp on Q4 2011. Thirty-seven per cent of households subscribed to pay satellite in Q4 2012, the same proportion as in Q4 2011. Thirteen per cent of households subscribed to cable in Q4 2012, which was also the same proportion as in Q4 2011.
• In Q4 2012, 3.4% of households had multichannel platforms other than digital terrestrial, satellite and cable (for example BT Vision), up by 1.4pp on Q4 2011.
• There were an estimated 2.12m free-to-view digital satellite households in Q4 2012, up from 2.04m in Q4 2011, according to our survey data.

Free-to-view digital satellite households:

  Q4 2009    Q4 2010    Q4 2011    Q4 2012
---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
  643,000  1,585,000  2,040,000  2,120,000