Digital TV News

Telly addict Brits embracing high-definition TV

Thursday 19 August, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Over five million UK homes now have a high-definition (HD) TV service, according to new figures from regulator Ofcom, as sales of HD ready TV sets exceed 24 million.

Brits are spending more time in front of their TV sets, enjoying high-definition (HD) TV services and digital TV recorders, such as the Sky+HD box.

Just over 20% of UK consumers have bought a HD ready TV in the last 12 months, helping boost sales of HD sets to 24 million. Among those households, over five million receive a HD digital TV service, either subscription-free from Freeview or Freesat, or by paying a monthly fee to Virgin Media or Sky.

The average consumer watched 3 hours 45 minutes of television every day in 2009, according to figures from Ofcom’s latest Communications Market Report - an annual report into the telecoms market.

This is an increase of 3% over the last five years, and could be partially attributed to the take-up of HD TV services. It may also be influenced by the recession, with consumers choosing to stay in rather than spending money going out.

Peter Phillips, Ofcom’s head of strategy, said: “Increasingly, mobile devices - especially smartphones - are used for multi-media, but live evening TV still remains the main entertainment event of the day.”

More and more people are also watching catch-up TV services, such as the BBC iPlayer and ITV Player. Figures for the first three months of 2010 show that nearly a third of households with access to the internet watch online catch-up TV, up 8% year-on-year.