UK sales of DTT equipment have reached an all time high with 9.7 million Freeview branded products sold during 2007, it was announced today.
The figures are backed up by retail research organisation GfK, which is reporting sales of 3.8 million units in the pre-Christmas quarter, representing Freeview’s best quarterly figures to date.
Freeview Playback now accounts for half the terrestrial personal video recorder market, received its own sales boost with sales jumping by 78% in December. According to GfK, the total number of Playback products sold is 272,000, with 209,000 sold in the last quarter.
Freeview is also benefiting from the growing number of IDTVs (integrated digital televisions) now on sale. 2.1 million IDTVs were sold in the quarter, an increase of 133% on the previous year. Although the United States and France mandate the presence of a digital tuner, the lighter UK requirement says a TV must have such a tuner in order to be granted the pink digital tick.
Set-top boxes are now typically purchased to convert second sets. Sales grew by 26% year-on-year with 19 million sets still to be converted.