Wide differences have emerged in the take-up of digital television between different social segments, according to the University of Leeds’s Centre for Future Communications. Research director Michael Svennevig told a recent conference on Advertising and Marketing on Digital TV that young and relatively wealthy early adopters were prepared to wait for the launch of digital cable services, rather than sign up to digital satellite. Many of these homes are likely already to be subscribing to analogue cable. This ‘Ambitious’ segment contrasts with the group that the centre has classified as ‘Jugglers’. Often with young families, the Jugglers value home entertainment and are twice as likely to sign up to digital television than the ‘Ambitious’ group.

Significantly, the group second most likely to install digital TV is categorised as ‘Underclass’, uneducated and often readers of The Sun. This is precisely the image that BSkyB has struggled to escape from.