Analysts expected spending on TV to continue to rise

Excluding the cost of hardware, each UK household spent an average of £144 on pay-TV subscriptions last year.

This beat the UK average of £127 spent on DVD and videos, £86 on music and £45 on computer games, business analyst Informa Telecoms and Media found.

A global average of $90 (£50) per household was spent on TV in 2005, expected to rise with digital take-up.

Illegal downloading

The worldwide amount spent on music has fallen over the past five years, from $33 (£18) per household in 2000 to $29 (£16) last year.

Informa attributed this drop to the increase of illegal music downloading via peer-to-peer (P2P) websites.

"With a limited amount of money to spend on entertainment, particularly among younger demographics, the widespread availability of free music via P2P has given users the opportunity to have their cake and eat it," said senior analyst Simon Dyson.

When they get home the majority of people still look to their TV as the first source of entertainment Simon Dyson, Informa Telecoms and Media

However, he expected legal music downloads and the availability of music via mobile phones to boost global music spending over the next five years.

Analysts expected spending on TV to continue to rise, predicting it would account for 53% of all home entertainment spending by 2010.

"When they get home the majority of people still look to their TV as the first source of entertainment," said Mr Dyson.

"Only if they decide there is nothing worth watching will they then turn to DVDs, music or computer games."

The analogue TV signal will be switched off, region by region, between 2008 and 2012.