Freeview achieves biggest ever audience

Speaking at the FT New Media & Broadcasting conference, Andy Duncan, Director of BBC Marketing and Communications, revealed how more people than ever are watching digital terrestrial television.
He pinpointed Freeview as the most important thing the BBC did last year, and highlighted imminent marketing plans for the BBC's digital services.
Commenting on how Freeview is already more successful than ITV Digital, with sales of the set-top adapters at around 500,000, in just over four months, Andy Duncan said: "None of us would have predicted that in the BARB panel for March 2003 - the estimated number of live digital terrestrial homes would be nearly 1.4 million.
"Overall this now leaves Freeview bigger than the highest ever ITV digital levels. It provides a key piece of the jigsaw in moving to a fully digital Britain.
"There is now a major new way for millions of our licence fee payers to receive all our services, and the Freeview format appeals to the very audiences that had previously been least likely to go digital."
(GB)