Digital TV uptake continues to soar in UK
Almost three out of four households in the UK now has digital TV, according to new research from media regulator Ofcom, which shows 18.2 million homes now have digital TV sets, driven largely by free-to-air platform Freeview. The progress report for the first three months of the year found that digital take-up has grown "faster than expected" to 72.5% of the population compared with 69.5% at the end of 2005, and found that free-to-air digital viewing has exceeded analog viewing for the first time. Accelerating take-up is also forecast for the rest of this year, which has seen an extra 800,000 homes sign up by the end of March. Ofcom's full-year prediction for 2006 is 1.7 million new additions, but that forecast now looks likely to be exceeded before the end of the year. [June 9]
