More than a quarter of Irish households now subscribe to digital television but the number of cable customers in the Republic has fallen dramatically, new figures published yesterday show.

The Commission for Communications Regulation's latest quarterly report shows the number of cable and microwave television users has slumped to 552,000, down from 615,000 a year ago.

The huge drop in subscribers to cable television systems has been accompanied by a comparable increase in the number of people subscribing to BSkyB's satellite.

The report says 272,000 people now subscribe to BSkyB, an increase of about 79,000 users in just 12 months.

BSkyB provides a digital television service to all its subscribers whereas most cable subscribers - 487,000 people - receive an analogue service.

Some 65,000 cable television subscribers have now upgraded to receive digital.

Digital television offers customers better picture quality and can supply a range of interactive services such as betting or sending e-mails.

Currently, 26 per cent of the State's 1.3 million households have a digital service.

The report does not highlight which cable firms have lost customers over the past year but official figures published by NTL recently show its customer base has remained relatively stable at about 368,000. The State's other big cable firm, Chorus, said it lost 20,000 customers.

The ComReg figures suggest 63,000 customers have abandoned cable in that period.

Mr Willie Fagan, director of regulatory affairs at Chorus, said the firm now had 200,000 cable and microwave subscribers.

Meanwhile, a separate ComReg survey found that half of cable users have complained about their service, compared to one in four satellite users.

Some 6 per cent of subscribers surveyed had switched provider in the past two years. Most of these users had switched to satellite, it said.