The Ofcom research report shows that the number of households with digital television was up by three points to 72.5%, or 18.2m, from 69.5% at the end of 2005.
The 'Communication Market: Digital Progress' report shows that for the first time the number of primary, or main, digital television sets in UK homes has outstripped traditional analogue television.
Almost 7.1m households have Freeview on the primary television set compared with around 6.4m yet to take up digital television.
The report refers to the first quarter of 2006, and says that take-up of digital television is growing faster than expected.
Ofcom's last Digital Progress Report for the final quarter of 2005, forecast that an extra 1.7m homes would take up digital television during 2006. By the end of March, almost 800,000 extra households had taken up the service, meaning that target is likely to be surpassed.
The report also says that Freeview sales for January-March were up 40% on the same period in 2005 at more than 1.2m, making this the third successive quarter in which sales have exceeded the 1m mark.
Estimates from GfK, which carried out the research, suggest that 38% of Freeview sales are intended for secondary television sets in the home.
The report also reveals that digital satellite is the UK's most popular digital television platform, viewed by 8.3m, or 30% of homes, of which almost 7.7m subscribe to BSkyB pay services and 645,000 receive free-to-view satellite services.
Just fewer than 1m BSkyB households view pay television on more than one television set through BSkyB's multi-room subscription service, according to BSkyB.
The number of cable television households increased slightly over the quarter and is currently more than 3.3m.
More than 70,000 digital cable subscribers were added during the quarter, mainly as a result of analogue subscribers transferring to digital services, the report stated.
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