Take-up of digital television – Ofcom Analysis

Currently people have universal access to digital television on their main TV sets.

97% of people in the UK, 98% in Spain and 93% in France enjoy this facility. 42% of households in the UK use digital satellite on their main television set at the end of 2010. The second most popular television platform in the UK is digital terrestrial and 40% of the households in the country use it. 15% of households make use of the services of digital cable. There is an increase in the usage of satellite and Freeview (digital terrestrial) in all nations. Half of the adults make use of Freeview to access multi-channel television at homes. Thanks to Freeview, among the older customers the digital take-up has continued to rise and the usage of analogue terrestrial-only has come down.

The proportion of adults receiving pay-TV in 2009 was 54% whereas in 2011 it is 58%. Customers above 64 are found to be less likely to have pay-TV. In the urban location there has been a remarkable increase in pay-TV (60%).

97% of homes in the country have taken-up digital services that can provide digital radio (i.e. Digital TV and internet).66% of customers claimed that they had access to digital radio services at home through internet, DAB set or DTV. In other words it means that the remaining customers are unaware that the radio services they have are “digital” or unaware that they have access to digital radio services at home.

Take-up of bundled services
With the availability of LLU, the number of packages or “bundles” of communications services offered to consumers have increased especially in the areas of fixed line and broadband offering discounts for taking two services together. Currently about half of the households in the UK buy two or more communications services from a single supplier in a bundle. The ‘potential’ for bundling depends on the ownership of each of the services included in each of the two main types of bundles, dual-play fixed voice and fixed broadband and triple-play fixed voice, fixed broadband and pay-TV. In the UK about 64% of adult consumers are having fixed-line and fixed broadband in their homes. Hence they have the potential for the “dual-play” and about 48% of the consumers have fixed-line and fixed broadband and pay TV in their houses and they have the potential to buy “triple-play”. At present 15% of adults purchase ‘dual-play while 12% go for ‘triple-play’ discounted bundles. The dual-play land line and broadband bundles is the most popular type of bundle in the UK followed by triple-play landline, broadband and multi-channel TV. Consumers who purchase discounted bundles of services are better served by providers than the consumers who purchase the services individually. As a discounted bundle, pay-TV largely purchased by Consumers in the urban areas (37%) when compared to their counterparts in the rural regions (24%).

Consumer availability and take-up
Reasons for non-ownership of communications services - There are many reasons for not taking-up a particular communications service. Generally these reasons can be put into two categories namely Voluntary and involuntary. When consumers do not take-up a particular communications services for the simple reason that they don’t want that service or that they are satisfied with an alternate service, then it is said to be Voluntary non-ownership. Involuntary non-ownership is where the consumers despite their willingness to have a particular communications service are prevented from having that service and this happens mainly due to affordability. Sometimes consumers may give ‘voluntary’ non-ownership reasons for ‘involuntary’ non-ownership as they don’t want to disclose their financial stringency to the researchers. As far as fixed line is concerned, among the DE socio-economic group and among 15-24 age group voluntary reasons for not owning a fixed line are high. Among lower socio-economic groups involuntary non-ownership of the internet is increasing.

Degree of difficulty in using technology
Consumer’s ability to make maximum use of the services available to them can be affected by the difficulty in using communications technology. The appearance of new phones causes much difficulty to its owners. Customers over 75 experience difficulty in using each of the communications services. Above 60% of them say that, they have difficulty in using their PC, while 50% experience difficulty in using their mobile phones.