The launch of Freesat, the free satellite TV service provided by the BBC and ITV in the UK, proved popular with online consumers during its launch week. UK Internet traffic to www.freesat.co.uk, the service’s online homepage, increased by 627% between the weeks ending May 3rd and May 10th, while UK Internet searches for the term ‘freesat’ increased by 752% over the same period, making it the fastest moving search term in the UK last week.

There were 79% more searches for the term ‘freesat’ than the term ‘sky’ during the week ending May 10th. However, this is to be expected for a new product that has received a lot of media attention – over a fifth of Internet traffic to Freesat’s website came from news and media sites during its launch period. As the chart below illustrates, Sky’s homepage still received 250% more internet visits that www.freesat.co.uk.

However, the types of visitors that each site is attracting are quite different. Two thirds of visitors to www.sky.com are aged 45 or under, whereas for Freesat the comparable figure is 43%. Freesat appeals to an older audience: 43% of visitors to its website last week were aged 55 and over, compared with just 20% for Sky. Freesat also appeals more to people living in rural areas such as the South West, but is less popular than Sky in larger cities, particularly in London and the North West.

Robin Goad

Robin Goad is Research Director, Hitwise UK. This piece was originally published on Hitwise analyst blog here.