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Thursday 06 August 2015 2:37 pm

Freesat unveils 200 pc boost to Freetime customers

By: Emma Haslett

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Subscription-free satellite TV service Freesat boosted subscribers to its Freetime TV service by 200 per cent in the first half of this year, it said this morning 

The figures

In results posted this morning the company said sales of its Freetime service grew 48 per cent year-on-year in the first six months of the year, with more than 19,000 new homes connected to the service. That's a 200 per cent year-on-year increase. 

Why it's important

The company, a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, provides customers with an alternative to engaging in the war between arch nemeses Sky and BT. 

It reckons the Autumn programming schedule, which includes another (sadly Damian Lewis-free) series of Channel 4's Homeland, as well as the last-ever season of Downton Abbey, gives people even more of a reason to sign up for satellite TV.

In recent months it's also partnered with set top box manufacturer Humx to launch a new set top box, which has a 2TB recording memory. That's enough to hold about 200 seasons of Downton…

What Freesat said

Alistair Thom, the company's managing director, said: 

It has been another strong quarter for the team at Freesat, and our continued growth demonstrates the ongoing appeal of subscription-free connected TV. Expanding our partnership with manufacturers like Humax, Manhattan and Vestel enables us to offer our customers great telly and on demand services, for even better value.

In short

It may be an outsider in the satellite TV wars – but with the significant advantage of the word "free" in its title, its position in the market looks strong. 

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