UK's Freesat adds 6,000 households in 2Q 2014

Solid half for Freesat as pay viewers continue to switch to Freetime

Freesat, the subscription free satellite TV service, has continued its good start to the year by adding 6,000 new homes in the three months to the end of June, as viewers continue to move away from long term contracts and expensive pay TV packages. In all, Freesat has added 24,000 households in the first half of 2014.

As a result, Freesat is now available in 1.85 million households, and is watched by more than 3.85 million viewers every week. During the quarter, the big hits with the Freesat audience included The Honourable Women, Happy Valley, the new series of Episodes and the World Cup in HD.

Freesat’s continuing growth demonstrates the appeal of premium TV on a subscription free basis. With a Freesat box, viewers have access to over 200 TV and radio channels, more than with any other free to air provider.

Freetime, Freesat’s connected TV service, has consistently delivered strong growth in its first 18 months. The latest quarterly figures highlight that it now accounts for 47% of all Freesat set top box sales, and sales of Freetime boxes more than tripled year-on year. For the first time, Freetime is also now available on Panasonic as the preferred TV guide in the new range of VIERA TVs, available to both Freeview and Freesat viewers.

The award-winning Freetime service allows viewers to roll-back the TV guide to watch shows from the past seven days, pause, record and rewind live programmes and offers immediate access to all the major On Demand players.

During the quarter, Freesat also announced the addition of its first pay VOD service, Curzon Home Cinema. Curzon Home Cinema offers the very best in independent cinema, including a hand-picked selection of award-winning critically-acclaimed films, and complements the other Freetime On Demand services which include BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD, Demand 5, BBC News, BBC Sport and YouTube.

Freesat has also recently enhanced its TV Guide and Remote Record App offering by adding an Android version to its award-winning iOS app, which has already seen more than 220,000 downloads since it launched earlier in the year.

Emma Scott, Freesat’s Managing Director, commented: “I’m constantly encouraged by the number of people that are switching away from paying for their TV every month to join Freesat which is subscription free. Our good start to the year has continued into the second quarter and the mixture of great programming, brilliant features and no monthly bills is proving to be a very compelling proposition.”