These headlines are contained in the company’s latest monthly subscription report on digital and analogue TV markets in the UK. The research is based on 4,000 in home adult interviews.

The new data also reveals that roughly 900,000 users of digital TV use any of the online services currently available through their TVs sets. This level compares to the 10.7 million people who are currently believed to go online through their home computers.

Continental’s findings lead the company to surmise that the big break for digital TV was really the advent of free set-top boxes, ongoing since June 1999. The percentage of homes with digital TV has now risen from 4% to 25% of the population. Looking at those homes with digital TV, it appears that the majority (71%) of users have now opted for a digital satellite service, whilst 16% have chosen a digital terrestrial service and the remaining 13% have selected digital cable.

The research’s other key finding lies in the relative popularity of the different TV services on offer. In this sense, pay-per-view movies have proven to be the most popular service, with 23% of users now accessing this service. This is followed by the second and third ranked services of listening to digital radio (17%) and playing computer games (14%).