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Half of TV households choosing pay TV services
Ofcom news release
DATELINE: 7/4/09
Almost half of television households in the UK are now choosing to pay for access to additional television channels, with satellite and cable services driving growth of digital TV according to new research from Ofcom.Its Digital Progress Report for the fourth quarter of 2008 reveals that 49.5 per cent of households have a pay satellite or cable service on their main television set, up from 48.6 per cent on the previous quarter. This compares to nearly forty per cent (39.3 per cent) of households which had free television services through digital satellite or digital terrestrial television (DTT).
In total, 88.8 per cent of households in the UK had a digital TV service connected to their main set at the end of 2008, up by 2.4 percentage points since the end of 2007.
Homes with access to a High Definition (HD) service rose to an all time high with over 1.5 million in total. BSkyB’s HD service saw the highest ever number of new homes added during the quarter bringing the total to almost 780,000 subscribers, up 188,000. There were a further 521,000 cable customers subscribing to Virgin Media’s V+ service which allows viewers to watch programmes in HD, while sales of BBC/ITV freesat HD receivers had reached 172,000 by the end of 2008. HD will also begin to become available on DTT from late 2009, with nationwide coverage by the end of digital switchover.
The total number of households with Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) on any set reached 17.7 million, up from 17.2 million during the quarter. Nearly 4.5 million DTT devices were sold in the fourth quarter of 2008, the highest sales of DTT equipment to date. This was mainly driven by record sales of HD-capable integrated digital TV (IDTV) sets with nearly 3.1 million sets sold during the period. Some 393,000 DTT digital video recorders were sold during the quarter, bringing total sales to around 2.3m.
DIGITAL SATELLITE SERVICES (Pay TV services). BSkyB reported that its customer base grew by 171,000 to over 9.2million households in the UK and Ireland during the quarter • Some 19 per cent of its customers (1.7 million) have at least one extra set connected to Sky through its Multiroom service, an increase of 68,000 on the quarter. Half (4.65 million) of all BSkyB customers now has a Sky+ service which allows viewers to pause, store and fast-forward TV programmes. This is an increase of 515,000 subscribers on the quarter
CABLE (Virgin Media subscribers). Virgin Media said that its subscribers rose by 44,500 to reach over 3.6 million households, during the quarter, the highest level of take-up since 2001. Over half (52 per cent) of its customers were using its video on demand (VoD) service. There were an average of 53 million VoD views per month over the period, up by 60 per cent on a year ago
DIGITAL SATELLITE SERVICES. The BBC/ITV Freesat service showed further growth during the quarter reaching 233,000 sales. By March 2009, it reported that sales had reached 300,000 • According to the latest consumer research there were around 600,000 households with free satellite services, similar to the previous quarter. The full report can be found here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/dtu_2008_04/
Last modified: Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Ofcom
Ofcom's Public Service Broadcasting Review: Good on the BBC, Bad on ITV
CPBF reponse to the Ofcom Review of Advertising and Teleshopping – Stage Two
Ofcom PSB Review
Citizens, Communications and Convergence
Ofcom on Public Service Broadcasting - Part II
Ethnic minority groups lead the way
CPBF response to Ofcom consultation on TV Ads
Those TV phone-in scandals - Ofcom starts re-regulating!
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Ofcom rejects Dispatches complaints
On the side of the market
Ofcom rules out immediate cash aid to Channel Four
Commodity or public asset?
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Response to Ofcom's Digital Dividend Review
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