At the same time, viewers are watching an extra 11 minutes of commercial TV a day than they were a decade ago.
This will come as a surprise to some because the number of people owning digital video recorders such as BSkyB's Sky+ or Virgin Media's similar box has soared.
In November, Sky reported a record 14% quarterly growth in subscribers to Sky+, up 323,000 on the previous quarter to 2.7m. The service is now in almost a third of Sky homes, allowing viewers to skip through ads on some of its hit shows such as 'Prison Break', 'Battlestar Galactica', 'Lost' and '24'.
The television industry will also be buoyed by the news that two key demographics for advertisers -- 16- to 24-year olds and ABC1 viewers, have experienced a growth in impacts.
Impacts for 16-24s increased by 1.5% to 31 TV ads a day, while impacts for ABC1s increased by 3.6% to 32 ads a day.
Thinkbox, the commercial TV marketing body, attributed the growth to digital TV penetration, which has now reached 85% of UK homes, and the growing attraction of digital channels among viewers.
Tess Alps, the chief executive of Thinkbox, said: "TV advertising had an impressive 2007; increased impacts, a creative renaissance and new commercial opportunities on the emerging platforms for TV that are giving people yet more ways to watch the TV they love.
"Challenges remain but TV has embraced new technologies and has a great future full of fantastic new ways for brands to reach audiences who -- uniquely in media -- can be as engaged with TV advertising as they are with the programmes."
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