3 - Television

3.1 Key market developments in television

3.1.1 UK television industry key metrics, 2002-2007

This section summarises some of the most significant developments in the UK’s television market during 2007:

• Digital television take-up grew by 7.5 percentage points in the twelve months to the end of Q1 2008 to reach 87.1%, driven largely by the popularity of Freeview.
• The first stage of the UK’s digital TV switchover began in November 2007 when analogue television services were switched off in Whitehaven and Copeland and viewers gained access to three DTT multiplexes for the first time.
• The gap between subscription and advertising revenues continued to widen, with income from subscriptions exceeding net advertising revenue by £744 million in 2007.
• The PSBs’ digital-only channels maintained a strong performance in 2007, gaining audience share of 2.3 percentage points, offsetting losses on the main channels. The result was that PSBs portfolios as a whole secured a 70% audience share in multichannel homes for the first time.
• A range of digital-only channels re-focused their services to target the 16-24 age group, with some notable success. UKTV Gold 2 re-branded as Dave, BBC Three re-launched as a pan-media proposition while Five Life re-launched as Fiver with the aim of attracting a younger, more balanced gender profile.
• Ofcom has introduced a new policy on premium rate telephony services following the investigation into the broadcasters’ use of these services, in which a number of programmes were subject to sanction over the conduct of viewer competitions.

These stories are examined in more detail below.