Freeview has claimed that it is now the UK's most popular digital-television service and is expecting to extend its lead over pay-television rivals with the launch of a branded personal video recorder later this month. The free-to-air digital-terrestrial service, backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB and National Grid Wireless, claims that 500,000 homes bought a Freeview decoder for their primary television set in the first three months of 2007, taking the number of UK homes that rely on the service to 8.2 million. Cary Wakefield, general manager of Freeview, claimed that it was now the UK's "first choice for digital television" having overtaken BSkyB's digital-satellite platform. Fourth-quarter data from regulator Ofcom showed that Freeview was the primary service in 7.70 million homes, with Sky Digital in 7.98 million. While Freeview will have to wait until Ofcom releases its next quarterly update in June for official confirmation, Wakefield hailed this as a "landmark moment" for the platform, and "perfectly timed" to coincide with the official launch of Freeview Playback later this month.
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