The number of UK households with digital television on their main set in the UK has risen to 86.1% according to research published today by Ofcom.

The growth, which was mainly driven by Freeview means that 8.6 million set-top boxes or TV's with integrated Freeview have been sold over the past year compared to 5.8 million in the preceding year.

2.4 million Freeview devices were sold during the quarter alone, up from 1.4 million in the third quarter of 2006, a 70% rise year-on-year.

The report out Wednesday also shows that many consumers - having already converted their primary television sets to digital - are now upgrading their secondary television sets in increasing numbers.

But its not just all Freeview, Sky too has increased its customer base by 67,000 during the quarter to over 8.1 million with 335,000 additions year-on-year. When combined with free-to-view satellite homes, total satellite households were over 9.1 million at the end of the quarter.

Sky’s high-definition service added 66,000 subscribers taking the total number to over 350,000.

With Almost 2.7 million homes (33%) of Sky customers now subscribe to Sky+ its personal video recorder service.

The report says that the total number of second television sets converted to digital now stands at nearly 12 million, up by 1.3 million during the quarter and up by 50% over the past year.