According to the latest figures in the IPA Trends in TV report, as of October 1 last year there were 10.4m homes with digital television, a figure that rose to 10.9m in January. But despite the rise in the number of homes with access to digital, non-terrestrial stations' share of the market fell slightly during the quarter to 23.7%, the lowest figures since the beginning of 2003.
The report shows that ITV1 has maintained its market share over the last quarter of 2004 at 23.8% but was still beaten into second place by BBC One, which recorded a 25.4% share of the viewing market. The channel was bolstered by strong Christmas viewing figures for favourites like 'EastEnders' and 'Only Fools And Horses', which saw it take 28.5% of audience share. ITV, which gave us 'World Idol' and the new drama 'Bride in the Bath', lagged behind on 21.5%.
Channel 4 took 9.6% of audience share over the quarter, down marginally on the same period last year and a fall of 0.5% from the previous quarter. Five failed to improve on its best figure to date, maintaining a 6.5% share of audience, while BBC Two was at 11.1% compared with 11.6% for the same quarter in 2002.
Despite widespread predictions that competing media, especially the internet, are eating into television audiences, the survey revealed that overall time spent watching television rose last year to an average of 3.73 hours a day, the highest figure recorded since 1992.
Lynne Robinson, IPA research director, said: "TV viewing overall continues to show a positive upward trend. Underpinning this is the continued strong growth in digital television penetration and multichannel viewing."
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