Disappointing Digital TV Viewing Results

Customer dissatisfaction with ITV Digital is thought to have reached new proportions. This is according to a recent BMRB survey of Britain's 8.5 million digital TV homes. The findings reveal that nearly one fifth of respondents are actually disappointed with their service.

The latest findings also indicate that customer churn is becoming a major headache for the broadcaster. Seventeen percent of ITV Digital customers told BMRB they are planning to switch either to BSkyB or cable providers in the near future. In comparison, a mere 3% of Sky subscribers and 11% of cable users expressed a similar intention.

In terms of market share, BSkyB continues to dominate digital viewing with 68% of all digital TV households. This viewing level remains substantially ahead of the cable companies (20%) and ITV Digital with 12%. The number of digital viewers new to multi-channel TV (almost 48%) was also found as being on the increase, up by one third year-on-year.

Although the watching of terrestrial channels (i.e. BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) remains more popular than digital and cable alternatives, a third of the survey respondents claim they now view less terrestrial TV than before going digital. In addition, over half of the BMRB sample in question now watch television for more hours than previously.

BMRB conducted the survey for ITV Digital across a sample of GB digital households during early Autumn 2001.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.