More than a quarter of Kiwi homes now have Freeview

Growth of the free-to-air digital broadcasting platform, Freeview, continues to track upwards, according to its latest enabled household figures which illustrate that as of 30th June, 2010, it has broken a significant milestone and is now being enjoyed by viewers in more than a quarter of New Zealand homes.

A total of 419,945 Kiwi households (26.1%) are now enjoying the benefits of crystal clear pictures, new channels, popular content and world-class digital technology for free. The increase in Freeview enabled homes for the last 12 months to June 30, 2010, was 65% from 255,048 homes to 419,945 homes, or a further 10.3% of the population. More specifically, for the second quarter of this year, Freeview satellite and Freeview|HD®. numbers have increased again. An additional 9,639 homes were enabled with Freeview satellite and 33,947 with Freeview|HD.

“It’s yet another strong result, indicative of the appeal Freeview has and the way in which free-to-air, digital TV and radio is proving so popular with New Zealand consumers. The anecdotal feedback we’ve had from retailers suggests the All Whites performance at the Fifa Football World Cup (screened live on TV One in HD, with alternate live games plus replays on TVNZ 7) played a part in this very good result for Freeview|HD. And prices for integrated digital TVs, which have built-in Freeview|HD tuners, and MyFreeview|HD Digital television recorders, are consistently falling, which helps too,” says Sam Irvine, Freeview General Manager.

“One thing won’t be changing and that’s our firm commitment to providing great TV and radio, both mainstream, popular content and niche channels, all via a free-to-air model,” he adds.