WHILE THE NUMBER of households with an installed high-definition television (HDTV) continues to grow worldwide, a large number of these folks aren’t using the thing to watch HD programming.
According to research firm In-Stat, the number of American HDTV households, defined as those having both an installed HD-capable TV set and also receiving and watching HD programming, increased by almost 40% in 2008.
However, the growth rate could well have been much larger. "In the U.S., there are more than 39 million households with an installed HDTV set," said Mike Paxton, an In-Stat analyst, in a release. "However, only 22 million of those are HDTV households, meaning that 17 million U.S. households with an installed HDTV set are not watching HD programming."
This shows that we’re not alone in Canada when it comes to this sort of gap, as recent CTAM Canada research revealed.
In-Stat also found:
* On a global basis, HDTV service remains limited to a relatively small number of countries, primarily the US and Japan.
* At year-end 2008, there were over 36 million HDTV households worldwide, up from 29 million at year-end 2007.
* Even though the number of European HDTV households is rising, it will be 2011 before the number of HDTV households in that region reaches the 10 million mark.
* Cable and satellite TV service providers provide HD programming to almost 80% of all HDTV households. Telco TV service providers and terrestrial broadcast TV service providers provide service to the remaining HDTV households.
