Freeview, Freesat and YouView rated more important than HD, says Humax UK survey

Subscription-free TV – Freeview, Freesat and YouView – has been voted more important than HD, according to a survey commissioned by Humax. 

The survey of 2,000 British viewers show that just 23 per cent of adults think that HD is essential, compared to 43 per cent of people who prefer not to pay for TV every month. 

The ability to pause, record and rewind live TV and catch up on missed shows is also more valued than watching shows in high definition. 32 per cent think that Sky+-style live pause and rewind is the most important feature and 26 per cent prefer to have services like BBC iPlayer and 4oD at their disposal compared to HD content. 

The survey, ‘TV Appeal: a snapshot into the UK’s TV viewing habits and ‘must have’ features’ shows that 65 per cent of UK adults have a digital TV recorder and 87 per cent of these regularly record content. 

Graham North, commercial director of Humax said: “TV viewers have never had so much choice when it comes to accessing and watching content and the research provides new insights into the services and features they value.” 

“Since the digital switchover, every household in the UK can enjoy a wide range of subscription-free TV channels and viewers are keen to enhance their experience further with features like integrated catch-up content and advanced recording.” 

Despite the wider availability of mobile devices and catch-up apps, the survey shows that the majority (58 per cent) prefer to watch live TV, with only 28 per cent saying they prefer to watch recorded content. 

Just 8 per cent of UK viewers perfect to watch via catch-up and on-demand services and most of these prefer to watch on TV compared to watching on a laptop or tablet. 

Catch up libraries like Sky On Demand are increasing all the time and services like Virgin TV Anywhere provide pay TV customers with more ways to watch. Despite this, it looks like the subscription free platforms remain popular with the majority of customers. 

Back in July, Freeview released figures that showed that it was more popular than respected British institutions like the BBC, ITV and the Church of England.