Nearly half of the 60m TV sets in the UK are connected to a digital device.

A report published today by Ofcom said, at the end of 2006, 48.5% of the UK population were connected. This is up from 44.7% recorded in the previous quarter and 39% recorded at the end of 2005.

During the quarter a further 1 million UK homes acquired digital television for the first time. In total, 77.2% of homes now have some form of digital television, up from 73.3% in the third quarter of 2006 and 69.5% at the end of 2005.

There was also an increase in digital TV secondary sets. Over 9m second sets are now connected to a digital device up from 7.9m last quarter and just over 6m a year ago.

BSkyB added over 200,000 homes in the quarter and is now installed in almost 9 million homes. Of these, BSkyB gained around 160,000 new subscribers, increasing its presence to almost 8 million homes.

Satellite is on the main television set in around 35% of homes, more than any other platform. This compares to 34% at the end of 2005.

Of all UK TV sets, analogue terrestrial still leads with a 51.5% share. Digital terrestrial has a 25.6% share while Sky has 15.3%. Cable has 6.1% while free-to-view satellite and TV over ADSL have 1.4% and 0.1% of the market respectively.