 The switch to digital will take place in 2009 |
More people in Wales have taken up digital television than in any other part of the UK, according to research by communications watchdog Ofcom. It found 72% of Welsh homes with digital TV, against 65% across the UK.
The research also highlighted the differences between digital TV watching habits in Wales and the UK generally.
In the UK overall, none of the top 10 programmes contained sport, whereas in Wales, four of the 10 were sport-related, and all about rugby.
The report also confirmed that Wales continues to have among the lowest home internet usage in the UK.
One of the factors behind this could be that fewer homes in Wales have landline telephones than in other areas.
The Welsh are far more likely, at 13% compared to an average 8%, to rely on mobile phones as their only means of making and receiving calls.
 | Top 10 programmes in Wales, 2005 (digital viewers) 1. Eastenders 2. Rugby Six Nations 3. Coronation Street 4. I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here 5. Rugby Build-Up 6. Wales on Saturday 7. Rugby Union 8. Emmerdale 9. A Touch of Frost 10. Little Britain |
But people in Wales primarily use the phones for emergency calls, and are more likely to use pre-paid mobiles.
Wales has the lowest mobile network coverage, with 79.8% of the country covered by all four networks, although 99.8% of the population can access at least one.
The report, The Communications Market: Nations and Regions, examined availability, take-up and usage of the internet, telecoms and broadcasting services. It sampled 4,426 adults across the UK, of whom 292 were from Wales.
Although digital TV take-up is high in Wales, the report noted that usage is mainly driven by higher than average satellite services.
Also, the proportion of homes receiving digital terrestrial television (DTT) via platforms such as Freeview is much lower than the UK average - 57% compared to 73%.
|  Everybody in Wales will have access to digital TV after switchover. Nobody who gets a quality picture at the moment is going to lose it |
With the switchover from analogue TV to digital in Wales scheduled for September 2009, there have been fears some viewers will be left behind.
However, Ofcom Wales director Rhodri Williams said the body set up to manage the switch, Digital UK, had the responsibility to ensure nobody would be unable to receive digital.
Media literacy
"Everybody in Wales will have access to digital TV after switchover. Nobody who gets a quality picture at the moment is going to lose it," he said.
The report noted that up to 204 relay transmitters in Wales needed to be converted to carry the DTT signal before switchover happened.
Although 59% of households in Wales have a personal computer, only 49% have internet access, and of that number, 54% use a broadband connection.
One aspect of the research focused on "media literacy". Welsh people were found to be less aware of internet issues and less internet literate than people in other parts of the country.
They were also more trusting of the medium, and more likely to give out personal information such as bank, credit card and mobile phone details.
Sue Balsom, the Ofcom content board's member for Wales, said knowledge of and access to communications services such as the internet were vital.
"If people don't know there is content there, and they can't find it, that raises huge citizenship questions," she said.
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