Freesat in over 1.8m homes
February 3, 2014
Freesat, the subscription free satellite TV service, has published strong Q4 results, adding 31,000 homes and bringing total households served to over 1.8 million. Freesat now reaches over 3.8 million UK viewers.
Freesat’s continuing growth demonstrates the clear attraction of premium TV on a subscription-free basis. With a Freesat box, viewers have access to over 200+ TV and radio channels, more than with any other free-to-air provider.
Sales of Freesat’s Freetime set-top boxes, which offer access to On Demand services and which allow viewers to pause and rewind live TV and roll-back the TV guide for the past seven days, are growing strongly, increasing 160 per cent year-on-year. Freetime boxes now account for 40 per cent of all Freesat set-top box sales.
During the quarter, Freesat launched its Freetime HD catch-up box with prices strating at £96 (€113). This has proved to be extremely popular with viewers, and accounted for one out of every three Freetime set-top box sales.
In addition, Freesat also launched its mobile app in January which has been downloaded over 130,000 times in the first two weeks alone. The app acts as a guide to what’s on TV as well as a remote control and lets viewers set recordings remotely.
Emma Scott, Freesat’s Managing Director, commented: “Freesat’s strong results in Q4 demonstrate the continued appeal of high quality TV without expensive contracts. With a Freetime box viewers are able to access over 200 TV and radio channels for free as well as being able to roll back the TV guide to access programmes from the past seven days, ensuring that they don’t miss any of their favourite shows.
“This quarter we are particularly proud of the success of the Freetime catch-up box which has been extremely popular with new users and allows even more viewers to benefit from Freesat’s market-leading Freetime technology. We’re pleased to say that our strong momentum has continued into the New Year with continued growth in household penetration and the successful launch of the Freesat mobile app.”