Freeview sales boosted by Prime

Freeview partly credits adding SKY’s free-to-air channel Prime to its lists for an upsurge in sales of its digital television receivers.Nearly 300,000 homes nationwide now have Freeview. The company says this is well above forecast and at a quicker rate per capita than the majority of countries which have made the switch to digital television.Latest sales figures for the three months ending September 2009 show that the total number of households able to receive Freeview is 291,853. This figure consists of 177,917 Freeview satellite homes and 113,936 Freeview|HD homes.“The availability and popularity of Prime seems to have contributed to our growth and has brought the total number of channels on Freeview satellite to 13 and 12 on Freeview|HD.” says Sam Irvine, General Manager, Freeview.A final decision on the official switch-over date (when the existing analogue TV signal is turned off) will be made when digital television up-take reaches 75% of households, or in 2012, whichever occurs first.More information regarding the current Freeview service and future plans can be found on Freeview’s Web site: www.freeviewnz.tvFor the answers to all your important questions about digital television, see the November issue of NetGuide, on sale October 19th.