Eight in 10 Aussie households switch to digital TV
Some 82% of Australian households have switched to free-to-air digital television according to figures from Freeview.
The announcement:
September 14, 2011 –
More than eight in 10 Australian households, or 82 per cent, have made the switch to Freeview digital television, with the most impressive increase coming from Sydney, despite having a higher penetration of pay television than other areas.
Freeview has welcomed the latest Digital Tracker report for April to June this year, released by the Federal Government’s Digital Switchover Taskforce. In its 10th survey, the taskforce commissioned Newspoll to undertake research into Australian households’ readiness for digital television.
In Sydney, digital conversion has jumped five percentage points to 78 per cent in this quarter, while remote Western Australia rose nine percentage points to 67 per cent .
Digital conversion in both Melbourne and Brisbane increased two percentage points to 81 per cent, while Adelaide was up three percentage points to 85 per cent.
The highest level of digital conversion was in Darwin, where 89 per cent of households have switched (up from 87 per cent in the first quarter).
Eighty two per cent of households in Australia, or more than nine million households, have converted their main set to digital television, which represents a jump of 35 percentage points since Quarter 1, 2009, when the survey began and just 47 per cent of Australian households had converted to digital.
The report also found that for those with digital television, 85 per cent are satisfied with it, nominating the number of channels available as their main reason.
Freeview Chairman, Kim Dalton said that the latest figures, which show a continued steady increase in conversion to digital, demonstrated that Australians understood the strength of the Freeview offer – quality programs and more choice, all for free.
“Given that the analogue switch off is still two years away, this latest report shows that Australians are continuing to embrace Freeview by converting to digital,” Kim said.
In addition, it was particularly pleasing to see Australia’s biggest city of Sydney now has more than three quarters of households with digital TV.
Regional Victoria became Australia’s third digital only region, switching over in May 2011 and 95 per cent of households in that region have converted.
Regional Queensland is due to switch to digital on 6th of December 2011 and includes the areas of Capricornia, Darling Downs, Far North Queensland, North Queensland, Queensland Central Coast / Whitsundays and Wide Bay.
Source: Freeview press release
