ONdigital doubles subscriber level
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THE BROADCASTER ONdigital is expected to reveal this week that its subscriber base has more than doubled during the second quarter of the year.
ONdigital, which had 110,000 subscribers at 31 March, is expected to report on Thursday that its total subscribers now exceed 240,000, according to estimates by Matthew Horsman, an analyst at Investec Henderson Crosthwaite.
The gains in the digital terrestrial broadcaster's subscriber base have been fuelled by its move in May to give away set-top decoder boxes. Previously, the decoders had cost pounds 199.
Although the subscriber gains are in line with expectations, ONdigital is still trailing behind BSkyB, which launched Sky Digital last October and which also began offering free set-top boxes in May.
Mr Horsman believes that BSkyB has attracted about 900,000 digital subscribers of which about 270,000 are thought to be new Sky customers. The remainder are former analogue customers who have switched to digital. He estimates that BSkyB has installed about 730,000 digital systems to date.
BSkyB is due to report full year earnings on 11 August and update its digital subscriber numbers, which by that time are expected to have gone past the one million mark, according to Investec Henderson Crosthwaite.
"On the strength of that they'll aim to accelerate the analogue switch- off," Mr Horsman said, commenting on BSkyB's eventual aim to broadcast solely in digital.
Speculation is growing that with the migration to digital accelerating in response to the offer of free systems, BSkyB may move up the time of its analogue switch-off date to December of next year. Earlier, BSkyB had planned to switch off its analogue broadcasts at the end of 2002.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments