Freeview hits one million viewers

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Free to air digital TV platform Freeview is now being used by more than a million New Zealanders to watch their favourite programs, according to the latest figures.

General Manager Sam Irvine says the milestone is a huge achievement for Freeview and proves the free to air platform has a central place in the future of New Zealand TV. 

"Freeview continues to enjoy the strongest growth of any digital TV broadcasting platform.  We've gone from being in zero percent of Kiwi households to close to 30 percent in just five years."

Freeview's latest sales figures show more than half a million of New Zealand's 1.6 million households were receiving Freeview free to air digital TV. As at the end of October 536,350 homes using Freeview for their television viewing and in total there are 792,878 homes who now have a Freeview device in the home.

"There's an average of 2.4 people in each household, so our figure of one million viewers is conservative," says Mr Irvine. 

"Freeview's increasingly rapid growth shows the TV most people want to watch is free to air."

TV ratings from Neilsen TAM show 80% of all audiences, or 1,227,000 people watch free-to-air channels between 6pm and 10.30pm.  Free to air TV also attracted the lion's share of audiences for the Rugby World Cup final, with 1.4 million or 68% of all viewers. 

"Free to air TV is still where we go to get our shared experiences.  Go to any workplace in the country and people will talk about the latest news or what they saw on free TV last night," says Mr Irvine.