The new terrestrial digital TV service Freeview had a set back yesterday when a new survey found that 7 in 10 of households who do not currently have digital TV said they weren’t interested in buying a £100 box to access free to air digital channels. Only 1 in 10 said they were likely to buy the service, 2 in 10 said they were quite likely to, the rest showed no interest. The figures will come as a setback for the partners behind Freeview – which include the BBC – and also for the government, which is hoping to have a sufficient number of viewers upgraded to digital by 2006 so it can phase out of the analogue TV signal.
"The results of this survey show that those involved in digital TV still have a lot to do to persuade consumers of all its benefits" Gary Austin of the British Market Research Bureau, who conducted the survey, told reporters. "Freeview faces a difficult task in persuading consumers that digital terrestrial TV is an attractive option while the other platforms may have to overcome worries over security if they are to increase revenues from transactions through digital TV”.