UK to be the digital TV leader by 2010

A recent study performed by Datamonitor shows that close to 95% of UK households will have digital TV by 2010, as compared to 50% in the US and 66% in Germany. The company also says that Freeview will overtake satellite transmissions by 2008.

Even though recent interest has been piqued in the UK for HDTV by the broadcast of the World Cup, its predicted that UK households will continue to be behind the cuff on adopting HDTV as their standard. Its noted that most people in the UK don't see enough improvement in the standard to warrant the purchase.

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom shows that the UK is already the leader in digital TV viewing by as much as 70%, with the US being only 55% and no other European countries passing the 50% total digital population mark. Future growth is expected to be spurred by the hi-tech field producing more and more personal video recorders and TV on demand services.

Much like other places in the world, the UK will be forced to make the switch whether they like it or not once the government turns off the analog broadcasting. The town of Whitehaven is the first scheduled to be cut over in 2007, with others to be completed by 2012.

Source:
BBC

Written by: Dave Horvath @ 23 Aug 2006 6:42

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11 comments

halfhere

well here in the U.S. too cable giants are forcing all channels on the digital forcing customers to have digital boxes.

23.8.2006 08:47 #1

rihgt682

LMAF Quote:UK to be the digital TV leader by 2010Korea and japan is already in the DIGITAL world.

23.8.2006 13:13 #2

marsey99

ive had a digi box, freeview and now cable, for 5 years and i cant understand how people watch normal PAL broadcasts. the quality is like looking at it through a snow globe, and the choice of all of 5 channels woohoo.

23.8.2006 20:43 #3

janrocks

Source BBC That shower who think it is compulsory for every house to have a TV so they can stare at the government certified propaganda and drivel that passes for news and entertainment... And force us to pay for said garbage whether we want it or not.. Good riddance to analogue tv broadcasting.. I'm not buying a digital tv or box.. That's my choice.. Good riddance to the crap BBC as well..surplus broadcasters in an oversubscribed world..

BBC= Pay-Per View...of everybdy elses channels too..You can't buy a package without the State propaganda service included.Just so they guarantee they can tax you for owning a tv... What a ripoff in a supposedly "Free" country..

23.8.2006 20:54 #4

ofolion

I'm in the UK and i don't know a single person who does have a Freeview box (digital) its like �30 and you get loads of channels, they mainly are crap but its worth it for �30.

As for HDTV i don't see the point, i'm not bothered about being able to see every blade of grass or every bead of sweat. If i were to buy a new TV i would almost certain buy a HD one because buying a "out of date" one doesn't make sense and i'd probably get some use out of it in the long term.

24.8.2006 03:07 #5

Wild9

I agree with you, janrocks. Analogue and now digital - it makes no difference: there is no such thing as freedom of expression in the UK and you will realise this the moment you switch on the box. You are confronted with a non-stop barrage of politically-corect, state sponsored propaganda.

Worse..as mentioned the BBC created a law that means every single household must pay the BBC money even if they don't want to watch BBC channels!

TV in the UK never used to be this crap, but when I am over there I just cannot stand to watch it. You may as well pump a feed directly from Whitehall because that's all it is..lies.

Plus, this "UK First" thing..beware of trojan horses. At times it seems the only thing the UK leads in these days is fleecing it's own people out of money they haven't got. Sorry about this being a political issue but so many things in the UK are RUINED by politically-orientated ventures.

As long as you agree with what is being said on those channels, you will be fine in the UK..spoilt for choice..

25.8.2006 13:36 #6

mitch999

I am British, now living in the USA and can say that HDTV is great. A huge improvement over NTSC and a good deal better than PAL but there really is not much differance between PAL and NTSC quality on a "studio" signal picture but a huge one in broadcast signals due to PAL having a bigger bandwidth carrier, not so much colour bleed over with PAL as NTSC (never the same color).Remember PAL has 580interlaced lines @ 50hz and NTSC has 480i @ 60hz, so you Europeans will not see much differance between standard viewing and HDTV-1080i lines @ 50 or 60hz but they are now selling sets here that are 1080p @60hz and my HDTV is 720p so i can get a reasonably good picture with standard picture and great pics with hd, And the new dvds are to be in HDTV so we will all have to get one of those in a couple of years and re buy all our standard dvds as we had to with vhs tapes, progress? , no , hollywood just ripping us of again

26.8.2006 03:23 #7

Wild9

mitch999, very useful information you posted there. Thanks.

26.8.2006 08:07 #8

marsey99

mitch999 you are right i recently got a new monitor that does 720p and when you play a "normal" dvd and hidef vid back to back can you tell the difference but when i compare it to my current tv(28inch philips ws@ 100hzt) its not as big of a improvement as most people would think but i dont doubt i wil get one when i need another as it would be daft to buy out dated technology

27.8.2006 14:49 #9

tonypdean

I am amazed at the people who complain about the content offered by the BBC. I live in the UK but travel a lot to the USA and, trust me, the standard of the material in the USA is much, much worse! And as for the complaints about the license fee, these people should be aware of the cost of cable or satelite TV in the USA. remember, there is no free terresital tv over there. Count your blessings guys

18.11.2006 09:51 #10

mitch999

TV quality in USA. Not as good as UK, I have to download Quality shows using bittorrent and the price of cable is expensive too. There are 'free' broadcast channels, from 6 to 12 depending on area and most of it is crap with the American censors cutting out stupid things like swearing and nudity yet allowing violence, double standards if you ask me, and repeats of the same format shows ie. cops and medical shows, not much originality because the tv stations are worried out getting fined or losing ratings/commercial revenue. So UK viewers are getting a good deal if you ask me.

19.11.2006 02:46 #11

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