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Freeview HD sales top 3 million

Freeview has announced it has now sold more than 3,000,000 Freeview HD devices.

Freeview has announced it has now sold more than 3,000,000 Free
Published on by on UK Free TV
Reports today indicate that 1.75 million homes are using Freeview HD for their high definition television.

According to www.dtg.org.uk link icon DTG - Freeview HD sales top 3 million:

Figures until the end of September 2011 reveal 3.1 million HD televisions and boxes have been sold since the service launched in March 2010. The majority (90%) of Freeview HD devices sold are televisions.

Ilse Howling, Managing Director of Freeview, said: "Breaking through the three million sales barrier is huge achievement for Freeview HD.

"Television remains an incredibly important part of people's lives and Freeview has continued to provide the most-loved programmes in the format people want since Freeview launched in 2002. Our focus now is to ensure we continue to develop and give viewers what they want over the next 10 years, post-switchover and beyond."







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woodface
Friday 28 October 2011 2:03AM
One in seven households in eighteen months is - at face value - stupendous for any product launch. Of course some of those TVs will only be used as monitors to display Sky, Virgin, games etc.

A better test may be sales of Freeview HD PVRs, which have not done as well. Perhaps due to clever 'free box' marketing by Sky etc, and the huge price premium compared to SD.
(I wonder how many owners of 2011 Sonys don't know their set is itself an HD PVR?)

Very glad we got a TV with Freeview HD though. Especially with the prospect of many more HD channels to come.
Briantist
Friday 28 October 2011 7:51AM
woodface: Another issue is that there are still large parts the UK where you will not be able to receive Freeview HD until next year, which makes marketing the service somewhat troublesome.

As you can still buy a great many "HD Ready" sets which have Freeview but not Freeview HD, I suspect a great many of the sets sold will be for Freeview HD use, as you can get cheaper sets for use with Sky, Virgin etc.
trevorjharris
Friday 28 October 2011 4:08PM
As has been said this is not really a reliable indication of the popularity Freeview HD. Most of my childrens friends (in thirties) have Sky or Virgin but most of my friends only have freeview. So it does seem to me that pay tv seems to attract younger people.
Briantist
Friday 28 October 2011 5:25PM
trevorjharris: Ofcom do research into the market on an annual basis, the most recent one is stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk link icon http://stakeholders.ofcom….pdf .
Josh
Sunday 30 October 2011 9:35PM
Hopefully, this means they can start to think about phasing out the sales of DVB-T only devices and phase in a rule mandating that only DVB-T2 devices may be sold in the UK. Then, once satisfied that enough of the UK has DVB-T2 devices, start phasing out DVB-T in favour of DVB-T2.
Briantist
Monday 31 October 2011 8:32AM
Josh: Yes, this is will happen over the years, but I would not expect it to do so until after switchover is complete as many people will still require cheap, quick access to DVB-T devices during their switchover.
Josh
Monday 31 October 2011 4:25PM
Braintist: At least if only DVB-T2 devices were allowed to be sold, there wouldn't be the thing of people buying DVB-T IDTVs that are "Full HD ready" thinking that they will get Freeview HD with it.
Briantist
Monday 31 October 2011 6:00PM
Josh: Yes, that is true, but there are plenty of people out there who still need to add an SD Freeview box to a SD analogue television set, or require a HD set to use with Sky or Virgin.
woodface
Monday 31 October 2011 8:58PM
There is no chance that sets would be forced to feature DVB-T2, let alone make DVB-T redundant.

Years after freeview was an established success, half the LCD/Plasma sets in Currys etc still only had analogue tuners! Despite government being desperate to encourage the Digital Switchover, no-one had the guts to enforce it.

Ironically in the 'free market' USA, massive fines were legislated for anyone retailing analogue only sets.
Briantist
Monday 31 October 2011 9:00PM
woodface: There was the "Digital Tick" which indicated equipment that was suitable. digitallogo.digitaluk.co.uk link icon Welcome .
Josh
Tuesday 1 November 2011 4:56PM
Briantist: I don't mean to be rude, and I forgot to mention this before, but try looking in Tesco! - £30 Freeview HD boxes. (Even as low as £15 in the "special offers" periods.

When you include the cost of manpower - nothing can justify a non DVB-T2 box any more, so buying a Freeview HD box even for a non-HD ready analogue only set is justifiable as there may be a multiplex launched that has only SD channels but uses DVB-T2. (An example of this is the RTE mini multiplex that will launch after DSO in Northern Ireland).
Briantist
Tuesday 1 November 2011 7:39PM
Josh: The point being, however, is that there is a lot of stock in the system that does not have DVB-T2 and you would be saying that they had "zero value" and would have to go to landfill by your proposal.

We have always had a "free market" approach to this kind of thing, allowing the consumer to make their own decisions.
Iain Davies
Saturday 17 December 2011 7:27PM
A few questions about SCD in 3D. I am recording SCD 3D in side by side mode in DR mode on a Panasonic Blu-ray recorder DMR-BW880 on the hard drive. Q1:- If I copy onto a blu-ray disc will it play in a Blu-ray 3D player on a 3D tv, will it show as 3D? Q2:- Is is passive or active? Q3:- Will it play from MY Pan. Blu-ray recorder as it is in side by side mode on a 3D TV?
Briantist
Tuesday 20 December 2011 8:35AM
Iain Davies: There is nothing complicated about the stereoscopic stuff, it just contains the left-eye and right-eye parts of the picture squashed into the full-frame.

It will transfer just fine to other media, as long as the flag tagging the content as 3D is stored, a 3D device will chop, frame-store, stretch and display the content.
Arnie
Saturday 24 March 2012 4:28PM Hove
I am puzzled as to why there are so few new small screen (around 19inch) TVs with DVB-T2 tuners. Now that the whole country is within weeks of digital switchover completion, this does seem particularly strange. Most people who want a small screen set for a bedroom or study do not want the clutter of a separate Freeview HD box.

Are the manufacturers deciding for us that it isn't worth watching HD on a small screen set? If so, I strongly disagree!
michael algar
Wednesday 28 March 2012 7:06AM
Arnie:

I have a 19inch Panasonic with Freeview HD, its nice, but from over 1 meter away you can tell NO difference between HD or standard, in the bed, where I view it from, I could nevr tell.
I reckon the set has to be at least 26inch before it needs HD.

just my opinion.
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