Australia releases Digital Tracker survey report

Australia’s Digital Switchover Taskforce, within the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE), has released its first quarterly Digital Tracker survey. The report measures the national uptake of digital television and Australians’ awareness and attitudes towards the switchover to digital TV.

Number of TV sets

It was estimated that there are about 16,799,000 working TV sets in Australian households plus another 569,000 in holiday homes that some of these households own. This gives a total of 17,368,000 TV sets in Australian homes.

Conversion status

A household is defined as “converted” if at least the main TV set has either an integrated digital tuner or a digital set-top-box or they view their main TV set through a PVR, or like device, with a digital tuner. The tuner must be capable of receiving at least all of the standard definition channels available in an area.

Although subscription television is transmitted digitally, subscription households have been classified as “not converted” in this tracker report as not all subscription services offer viewers all free to air services.

Based on this definition, almost half (47%) of Australian households have converted to digital television while a further 53% have not converted.

Of the portion of households classified as ‘not converted’, there is recognition that some of these households (16%) have chosen to receive subscription television as a part of their television viewing experience.

To the extent that particular subscription television services do guarantee a household’s access to all available free to air standard definition television services in an area, then those households will be classified as ‘converted’ in future digital tracker surveys.

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