§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her estimate is of(a) the number 151W and (b) the percentage of households in the United Kingdom that (i) receive and (ii) can receive digital television by (A) digital terrestrial, (B) digital satellite, (C) digital cable and (D) other means. [51071]
§ Dr. HowellsThe information available is as follows:
(A) Digital television take up
- (i) 5.7 million subscribers to Sky Digital.
- 0.7 million subscribers to Telewest.
- 1.25 million subscribers to NTL
- 1.26 million subscribers to ITV Digital
Source:
Pay television subscriber figures December 2001
(ii) The Office for National Statistics has available the following figures for Great Britain from the National Statistics Omnibus Survey, October 2001. These figures were released on 18 December 2001.
Percentage Proportion of households in Great Britain by whether there is digital TV in the household; October 2001 Households with digital TV 29 Households without digital TV 71 Proportion of households in Great Britain with digital TV broken down by service provider; October 2001 Digital TV service provider ONDigital/ITV Digital 11 Sky Digital 64 NTL (Cable-Digital)/Telewest 25 Other (including other cable and terrestrial)1 1 1 The majority of these households had digital terrestrial TV. Note:
These percentages are proportions of all households with digital TV (29 per cent. of GB households). Like all estimates from sample surveys these figures are subject to sampling variability.
Source:
National Statistics Omnibus Survey
(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 population Number of homes Multiplex 1 BBC 81 20,261,000 Multiplex 2, Digital 3&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 1 Core 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.
152W(2) Digital satellite is predicted to reach about 98.2 per cent. of the UK population.(3) The ITC does not have figures for the number of homes passed by digital cable.(4) Data is not available for other technologies.
§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what assessment she has made of the likelihood of digital television transmission reaching homes that are not receiving analogue reception in North Devon; and if she will make a statement; [51779]
(2) what efforts have been made to encourage digital television switchover in areas that do not receive analogue television reception. [51780]
§ Dr. HowellsThe Digital Television Action Plan, posted on www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk on 20 December, sets out a series of actions for Government and stakeholders to promote digital television and to prepare for switchover. We began a consultation on 11 December 2001 seeking views on the basis on which we should plan the use of spectrum once analogue transmissions cease, including what level of coverage would be required by terrestrial television for public service broadcasting and for pay-tv services. The consultation closed on 5 April 2002 and we are considering the responses.