The UK leads the rest of the world in the take-up of digital television services, Ofcom reported on Friday.

At the end of 2005, digital penetration in the UK stood at 69.4%, and Ofcom, citing research by GfK, reports that preliminary data for sales of Freeview and integrated DTTVs to the end of February this year indicates that penetration has now risen over 70%.

No other Western European country has yet to top 50%; the USA is in second place worldwide with 55% take-up. Ofcom notes that this is probably because in many other nations, the television marketplace developed such that relatively cheap analogue multichannel services have been available for decades and consequently there is far less reliance on the traditional analogue terrestrial network for receiving television programmes.

In America, for example, around 70% of homes have cable TV -- of these, around 33% take digital rather than analogue multichannel services. A further 20% receive digital satellite services, with only 10% receiving analogue broadcast signals. As such, take-up of digital terrestrial tuners in the US has nowhere near the mass-market appeal of, for example, Freeview in the UK and the US government has pushed back analogue switch-off to 2009. The US switch-over plan also includes plans to distribute two vouchers worth $40 each to every American home for the purchase of DTT boxes.