1.51m homes had digital terrestrial (Freeview) television at the start of Jul 2003, compared with 763,000 in Oct 2002. The figures, from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, mean digital viewing now accounts for 40% of homes in the UK, up from 36.2% this time last year
This is good news for BBC3, ITV2 and the other Freeview channels. The IPA's research director Lynne Robinson said: "The share in viewing for non-terrestrial channels is increasing, spurred on by the significant growth of Freeview."
That said not all multi-channel TV formats were on the up - only 2.16m homes had cable at the start of this month, down from a high of 2.52m at the start of the year.