Since its launch, the growth of digital TV has been fuelled mainly by Sky, the figures showed.

A survey carried out by the Independent Television Commission (ITC) indicates that the number of digital homes grew by nearly 400,000 to just under 9.7 million in the third quarter of 2002.

The ITC's findings also suggest the public is opting for digital TV sooner than when they first bought videos or computers, after they were introduced as new technology.

Freeview has been promoted with ads featuring stars like Alan Hanson

The ITC's figures state that 6.06 million homes now subscribe to Sky Digital following a steady and continued increase over the year.

It rival ITV Digital collapsed earlier this year and the ITC's survey does not include figures for the early rush of people to take up the successor service Freeview.

Compared with figures for the early take-up of videos recorders and home computer equipment, digital TV is a long way ahead.

The ITC report states that three years after their launch, video recorders and computers were in less than two in 10 homes.

Early boom

But earlier this week, research carried out by the British Market Research Bureau (BRMB) to show the success of terrestrial digital television system Freeview would begin to slow in 2003.

Freeview, backed by BSkyB and the BBC, will play a crucial role if digital's momentum is to be maintained.

Retailers have been reporting a boom in sales of the £99 set-top boxes, with 65,000 sold in its first two weeks, along with more than one million enquiries.

Most multichannel homes have digital satellite

But research into the predicted take-up of digital television has indicated that just one in 10 people who do not yet have access to digital television are "very likely" to buy a Freeview box in the next year.

The ITC research into multichannel viewing, also showed that six out of 10 homes receive multichannel TV on digital satellite.

Analogue or digital cable is used by three out of 10 homes and around one in 10 through digital terrestrial TV.

The number of cable subscribers continued to fall for the fourth consecutive quarter, dropping by l 2% to 3.38 million.