Penetration of digital television in The Netherlands grew from 41.3% in 2008 to 50.8% in the second half of 2009, according to the Establishment Survey of SKO, which is conducted annually by Intomart GfK. During the past year, the number of homes with a PVR increased from 14.7% to 21.6%.
The percentage of homes with a conventional analogue cable connection in the second half of 2009 dropped to 60%, having been 73% in 2008. The increase in the number of homes with PVRs was mainly due to the increase of cable tuners with built-in hard disk, now in 9.3% of all Dutch homes.
Watching videos on the Internet is also popular with Dutch viewers. In 2008, 27% of Dutch households said they watched TV via the computer. In the second half of 2009 this number rose significantly to 34.9%, or more than one in three of all people.
Bas de Vos, MD of SKO, said in a statement: “The digitilisation of television has now passed the critical limit of 50%. A development that is also reflected in the growth of set top boxes with hard disk. Both phenomena will provide a further evolution in viewer behavior. Watching catch-up TV is a lot easier nowadays. Also, viewers are now able to receive more channels. That’s why we added over 40 new channels to our audience research. Bringing the total number of channels we rate to 159”.
