KEY POINTS:
Freeview's general manager Steve Browning says 21,000 digital receivers have been bought since the launch of the satellite free-to-air TV service in May.
Added to the existing pool of digital receivers that were already in the market, that makes a total estimated Freeview audience of 41,000 households - 100,000 people.
Browning says he is happy with that - he was targeting 40,000 homes for the first year of operation. He has them already.
What's he's less happy about is the number of official Freeview receivers that have sold.
Freeview certified only two manufacturers to deliver receivers - Hills Signalmaster and Zinwell, though many others are available, often for cheaper prices. Only 55 per cent of digital receivers sold (around 11,550) have been official Freeview boxes.
"I would like to see the certified ones getting more market share so people don't get dissatisfied down the track. I was hoping it would be an 80-20 split," said Browning.
He suggests that as more Freeview channels come online, it will be easier to tune certified boxes to pick them up than those that don't have Freeview's endorsement.
The Freeview service launch was hampered by early technical problems with some of the certified boxes. Those problems are behind Freeview, but the main barrier to take-up has really been the high price of the boxes, which debuted at $299.
Some discounting of Freeview boxes is now under way to try and stimulate sales - Dick Smith is selling one for $249.
Then there are the legions of unofficial boxes (check out the photo to the right that I took when I was in Waitangi a couple of weeks ago - apart from the dodgy Freeview spelling, the price is pretty good!)
The other thing that will drive take-up is the availability of new content and there's certainly some of that in the pipeline.
Freeview will add TVNZ Sport Extra, TVNZ Kidzone, Family and Showcase, and a Freeview version of Triangle Television - called Triangle Stratos.
The "factual" TVNZ7 channel with news bulletins on the hour won't arrive until March next year. Browning said there was one other channel to announce this year. Freeview wants to have 12 - 15 channels by the end of next year.
Browning said Freeview take-up in regions such as Northland, Nelson, and Southland has been strong. That's to be expected, TV reception in those areas is substandard for many.
Visitors to my house who I show Freeview to, are impressed by the electronic programming guide, which is much cleaner than Sky's and gives blurbs about listed programmes. What would be great is a function on the menu that allows you to hit record to copy your favourite programmes. Browning says that will be possible but not until next year.
"A PVR is well and truly in the planning but it will be next year. The research showed us that people loved the simplicity of Freeview. It has to be the same [for a PVR]," he said.
Browning said research showed that people were happy with the Freeview service once it was installed and that they were looking for more diversity of channels to give them an alternative to what's on offer, rather than numerous channels.