Internet and broadcast TV service YouView says 400,000 boxes have been purchased and activated since the service went live last July.
Launched last year amid widespread media scepticism, the service is a joint venture between the UK’s largest free to air broadcasters and ISPs BT and TalkTalk.
At a press briefing held at the firm’s Thames-side HQ, CEO Richard Halton told journalists that almost 400,000 boxes had been sold by retailers and partner ISPs by the end of March.
The rate of take-up reported by BT and TalkTalk means that figure is certain to have been exceeded in recent weeks.
Halton said the figures made YouView the “the fastest growing TV service in the UK”.
YouView held the briefing to demonstrate a number of new features, including an Android version of its remote record app which will launch within weeks.
An iOS app is already available and has recently received several updates and enhancements.
Later this year both versions of the apps will be updated to offer remote control features, enabling smartphone and tablet owners to use their devices to search for content and control core box functions.
They will also support voiceover and accessibility features where available, opening the app up to visually impaired users.
The summer will also see YouView boxes updated to support streamed internet (IPTV) channels.
The company says this functionality will initially be available to BT and TalkTalk boxes but that retail boxes will gain access to IPTV channels at a later date.
Journalists were shown how IPTV and broadcast channels will appear in a single EPG, with users offered a seamless experience without the need to understand the different technologies behind the respective channels.
The new internet channels will support YouView’s backwards EPG where catch-up and on demand versions of programmes are available but will not be recordable at launch, however this feature is expected to be added by Autumn.
Additional Video on Demand portals will also be added later this year, and the company said it would announce specific partners “ in the next few weeks.”
It is widely expected that these will include either Netflix or Lovefilm. Music on demand service Vevo has also expressed an interest in joining the platform.
Halton said the platform already offered the UK’s most popular VoD players and revealed that 60% of users view on demand content each week, with the average viewing more than three hours of content.
He said the figures showed that YouView “is taking catch-up TV into the mainstream.”
