Arsenal's win over Newcastle topped the non-terrestrial TV list

TV on non-analogue TV made up 29.1% of the audience during Christmas week, the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (Barb) said.

In comparison, BBC One had a 27.2% share and ITV1 22%. Both were down from the previous year.

It was the first time their combined audience share has been less than 50%.

The digital TV audience share jumped 20% compared with last year, Barb said.

The figures include satellite, cable and Freeview users.

While BBC One had lost just over 2% of its share, and ITV1 less than 1%, BBC Two lost a quarter of its audience share. It had 8.9%.

Football success

The Newcastle United v Arsenal game on December 29, which was shown on Sky Sports 1, had an audience of 1.65 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-terrestrial programme during the week.

The next four most-watched programmes were also all football matches from the Premiership.

But cult BBC Three comedy Little Britain took sixth, seventh and ninth places in the top 10.

On Christmas Day, BBC channels were three of the five most-watched in multi-channel homes. BBC Three also got more viewers than BBC Two, Five and Channel 4.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "Multi-channel viewing is on the increase and the BBC is part of that.

"We are committed to digital television and for BBC channels to occupy three of the top five places in peak time on Christmas Day is a fantastic achievement."

ITV1 and BBC One's 49.2% audience share compares with 73.3% combined for the two channels 10 years ago.

In the TV ratings battle, which included viewers watching using an analogue signal, BBC One was victorious on Christmas Day, with soap EastEnders attracting 12.3 million viewers.