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Freeview HD running neck-and-neck with My Sky HDi


A record month for Freeview sees its high definition platform over-take Sky TV's - at least on raw numbers.

Chris Keall
Wed, 16 Feb 2011

UPDATE: At its February 18 update, covering the six months to September, Sky TV said it had 212,698 My Sky HDi subscribers out of 231,100 My Sky subscirbers. The companies total subscriber base increased 2.9% to 807,400.

Freeview had a record month in December, the digital consortium (backed by TVNZ, MediaWorks, RNZ and others) says.

READ ALSO: Sky TV move crimps Freeview expansion

Sales figures supplied by retailers show 34,928 Freeview receivers were sold across the country during the month. 

For the last quarter of 2010, 78,700 Freeview receivers sold, up from 58,417 in the third quarter.

Of these, 11,706 were Freeview satellite receivers and 66,994 were Freeview HD receivers.

215,000 on Freeview HD
Freeview general manager Sam Irvine told NBR the total installed base, as of the end of December, now runs to 523,210 homes of which 215,120 were Freeview satellite (that is standard digital definition) and 308,090 Freeview HD (high definition).

"Freeview HD is currently growing at about six times that of Freeview satellite," Mr Irvine said.

The majority of Freeview sales were in the form of receivers built into new flatscreen TVs, rather than standalone set-top boxes, but sales of MyFreeview recorders -  includng the troubled TiVo - "continue to grow progressively".

200,000 on MySkyHDi
At its last update, Sky TV said it had just on 200,000 subscribers using the HD version of its My Sky platform. The company is due to report its December half year this Friday, including an updte on My Sky HDi numbers.

Sky TV chief executive John Fellet maintains that many who buy a TV with a built-in Freeview receiver never use it. Sky TV's line-up includes channels such as TVNZ6 and TVNZ7, shared with Freeview.

Mr Irvine counters that not all My Sky HDi subscribers pay the extra cost of the HD Ticket necessary to take full advantage of their HD-capable decoders.

Everybody's doing it
Either way, every household will have to choose either Freeview or Sky TV over the next couple of years.

The government is scheduled to switch of analogue TV transmission, region by region, between September 2012 and November 2013.

The freed up spectrum will be auctioned to phone companies and internet service providers.

Chris Keall
Wed, 16 Feb 2011
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Freeview HD running neck-and-neck with My Sky HDi
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