The Ofcom figures show that in the three months to September 2004, 430,000 households took up Freeserve with just 89,000 choosing its pay-TV rival Sky.
The Ofcom Communication Quarterly Update reveals digital television is now in 56% of households, while 28% of all viewing is made up of digital channels.
According to the report, half of all households watch at least 15 minutes of digital channels in an average week.
Elsewhere, BBC Radio increased its listening share to 43.5% due to Radio 2 achieving a 16.1% increase in listeners and BBC Radio Five Live garnering 4.9%. The increase is also due to the growth of the BBC digital stations, such as BBC 1Xtra and Five Live Sports Extra.
National commercial radio is up five percentage points over the last two years from 21% in the third quarter of 2002 to 26% of the third quarter of 2004.
Local commercial radio attracts 34.1% of listeners, almost 10 points down on the BBC figure.
The report also reveals that there are more broadband connections than unmetered dial-up, with take-up at 38% and 25% of all internet connections respectively.
Broadband is now estimated to be in more than 6m homes in the UK.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
.jpg)
.jpg)