Only 10 per cent of people understood that ONdigital was a new
digital TV service in the week before it launched, according to research
from CIA MediaLab’s latest Sensor survey.
The study found that, although 37 per cent of people had seen
advertising for ONdigital, which went live this week, just one in ten
knew what the service was.
The figures compare with 41 per cent who knew what Sky Digital was the
week before its launch, and 64 per cent who do now, even though only 60
per cent claim to have seen ads for Sky Digital. The digital TV channels
with the highest awareness are BBC Choice (39 per cent) and FilmFour (33
per cent).
Awareness of digital TV in total is continuing to rise, but just 7 per
cent say they feel very familiar with it. However, the desire to go
digital in the next 12 months is up to 18 per cent with men, 25- to 44-
year-olds and ABC1s the most enthusiastic.
Current cable and satellite owners are more likely to expect to trade up
to digital and are twice as likely to expect to go digital in the next
12 months than non-cable and satellite viewers - 27 per cent compared
with 13 per cent.
On average, people are only willing to spend pounds 47 for a decoder to
get digital channels through existing TV sets and the number of people
resisting the notion of paying more for their TV is rising: 41 per cent
say they wouldn’t be willing to pay more, compared with 35 per cent in
September.
David Fletcher, the head of CIA MediaLab, said: ’Many people have yet to
be convinced of digital TV’s benefits. But rising familiarity is so far
being matched by rising demand and Christmas could prove the perfect
excuse for many households to join the digital revolution.’
