The media regulator's latest digital report shows that Freeview, the BBC and BSkyB backed free-to-air service, is the fastest growing service in the market, with a 14% market share compared to 6% last year.
Freeview's figures compare to a 2.8 per cent rise across the digital TV market during the period, with 53% of all households now having access to a digital service. Digital TV penetration broke the 50% barrier in the last quarter of 2003.
Despite Freeview's in-roads, satellite service BSkyB remains the UK digital TV market leader. BSkyB now has 7m subscribers, although this represents only a 1 per cent growth on the previous quarter.
The total number of subscribers to cable television has also shown a slight increase, with 3.3m households now using cable. Of this total, digital cable accounts for around 2.4m.
The Government wants to see 95% of all homes with digital TV by 2010 and is working with broadcasters to achieve its digital switch over target.
The latest figures also show a rise in people switching from narrowband to broadband services. At the end of April the UK had 4m broadband users, with around 40,000 new connections each week.
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