HC Deb 06 December 2001 vol 376 cc500-2W
Mr. Yeo

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her estimate is of the(a) number and (b) percentage of people living in the United Kingdom who have a television at their primary place of residence. [21384]

Dr. Howells

Statistics on television ownership relate to premises rather than individuals. The estimated number of domestic premises with a television set is 24.585 million or 97.25 per cent. of all such premises. The available statistics do not distinguish between primary and other residences.

Mr. Yeo

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her estimate is of(a) the number and (b) the percentage of (i) people and (ii) households in the United Kingdom that (A) receive and (B) can receive digital television by (1) digital terrestrial, (2) digital satellite, (3) digital cable and (4) other means; and what the equivalent figures are for reception at people's primary place of residence. [21386]

Dr. Howells

The information available is as follows:

  1. (A) Digital television take up
    • Nearly 8 million UK households (30 per cent.) have switched on to digital television since 1998, made up of some:
    • 5. 5 million satellite (Sky Digital);
    • 1.22 million terrestrial (ITV Digital);
    • over 1 million cable (NTL and Telewest);
    • others using terrestrial free-to-air only broadcasts and other technologies (eg ADSL).
  2. (B) Digital television coverage
    • The latest figures available from the Independent Television Commission are as follows:
    • (1)Digital terrestrial television (DTT) as at July 2001

UK coverage Percentage of population Number of homes
Multiplex 1 BBC 81 20,261,000
Multiplex 2 Digital 3 and 4 80 19,851,000
Multiplex A SDN 78 19,455,000
Multiplex B ITV Digital 79 19,546,000
Multiplex C ITV Digital 76 18,963,000
Multiplex D ITV Digital 74 18,441,000
Core coverage1 68 16,929,000
1Core coverage is the ability to receive all six multiplexes

The BBC and ITC, who are responsible for the DTT transmission network, are considering, in consultation with Government and stakeholders, how to improve coverage of all DTT multiplexes across the UK.

  1. (2) Digital satellite is predicted to reach about 98.2 per cent. of the UK population.
  2. (3) Digital cable passes 6.2 per cent. of UK homes.
  3. (4) Data are not available for other technologies.

Mr. Yeo

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what is her estimate of the number of(a) analogue and (b) digital television sets bought in each of the last five years; and how many sets there are in the United Kingdom; [21382]

(2) if she will estimate the number of (a) analogue and (b) digital (i) radio and (ii) television sets in the United Kingdom. [21383]

Dr. Howells

The Independent Television has advised that there are estimated to be 40–50 million analogue television sets in the UK and 210,000 integrated digital television sets.

Estimates of television sales in the last five years are as follows:

Analogue TV sales(million) Digital TV sales(thousand)
1997 4.3 nil
1998 4.7 2
1999 5.5 27
2000 6.2 94
20011 4.6 87
1To October.

Equivalent figures for radio are not available, but the Radio Authority has advised that there are estimated to be in excess of 100 million analogue radio sets currently in use in the UK and some 40,000 digital radio sets.