UK switches on to digital TV

Nearly two thirds of British homes are now equipped with digital television reception, according to figures released by Ofcom.

At the end of last year nearly 15 million homes had digital television, watched by 59.4 per cent of Britons using set-top boxes or satellite. This represents a three-point rise over the third quarter of 2004.

About five million homes are using the Freeview set-top boxes but the figures reveal that households which already had access to digital TV bought a quarter of the boxes sold in the last three months of the year.

An adjustment has been made to account for the number of households which have more than one television receiving digital broadcasts, according to the report.

"Latest estimates suggest that 25 per cent of sales of Freeview boxes in the last quarter of 2004 were bought for use with second televisions by households which already receive digital broadcasts (either Freeview, BSkyB or cable) on their main television," said the report.

The government will start to switch off the analogue television signal in the UK between 2008 and 2012. Wales and the Border region in the north will be the first to go completely digital.

The Treasury is eyeing the move as a potential revenue opportunity. The spectrum currently used by television is very valuable to mobile and Wi-Fi services as it allows long range transmission using relatively low power.

Intel has already started pressing hard to use the spectrum for its WiMax products that allow wireless connections at broadband speeds.

When the 3G licences were auctioned in 2000 the sale raised £22.5bn from five telecoms consortia.