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High Definition Television (HDTV)
Summary
All you need to know about HDTV on just one page, covering definitions, impact on advertising and the current and future market.
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Media Bitesize: HDTV What Is It?
HDTV – or High Definition Television – is a digital television broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than traditional formats. It offers superior picture quality to standard television, with greater clarity, smoother motion, richer and more natural colours and surround sound.
Current Market
BSkyB continues to dominate the UK HD market, with over 1.3 million subscribers (Q2 2009) capable of accessing 13,000 hours of HDTV a month, across 33 HD channels. These include high-definition versions of the Sky Sports channels, Sky1, Sky Arts and others such as Discovery, National Geographic and the History Channel. 14% of all Sky subscribers now take its HD services.
Virgin’s HD services now have around 248,000 subscribers according to Screen Digest. This summer, Virgin announced the launch of six new channels on the cable platform, including HD services from Channel 4, ESPN, LIVING, FX, MTV and National Geographic. By August 2009, there were 300 hours of HD content available on the Virgin VoD service.
The BBC estimates that there are nearly 19 million HD-ready sets in use in the UK, with independent estimates suggesting almost 45% of UK homes are now HD-ready. The corporation itself, claims 1.2 million viewers per month to its HD content.
ITV launched its HD service, exclusively on Freesat with live coverage of the Euro 2008 football championships in Austria and Switzerland. ITV HD will become ITV1 HD when it relaunches for Freeview HD in December 2009 – to include 35% ‘native HD’ content at the start of 2010. Freeview is set to launch its first HD services over the next couple of months.
Globally, just 42% of homes with an HDTV set will be active and actually receiving HD programming by the end of the year, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. However, the commentator expects HD programming to be much more readily available by 2013, with around 65% of HDTV set homes receiving content; equating to 214 million global TV homes.
Impact On Advertising
While 42% of TV sets in the UK are HD ready, the majority of these are not connected to an HD service and therefore not HD-enabled.
However, as take-up of HD devices and services increases, more advertisers will move into this arena to take full advantage of the new technology and what it can offer. Procrastinators claim that the service will enhance the appeal of TV, leading to increased viewership and advertising.
A recent CRE study in the US found that HD increases viewing by more than 5% (especially sports), backing up findings from Jack Myers which suggests that claimed engagement with advertising on HD channels for viewers with HD sets was 10% higher than for standard definition.
Jack Myers US research also shows that HDTV viewers, paying significantly more attention to advertising, are also more likely to consider advertising to be a recommendation.
Going Forward
HDTV is finally on the brink of mass market acceptance according to Informa. While just 5.5% of global homes will actively watch HD programming by the end of 2009, this equates to 65 million active HD households, up from 24 million households by the end of 2008.
By 2013, Informa forecasts there will be 214 million active HD homes (17% of all TV households), more than 3 times the number expected by the end of this year.
59 million European households are currently equipped with HD-enabled TV sets and this figure is set to grow to 116 million in 2010 (51% penetration) and explode to 220 million in 2018, according to EuroConsult. Driving this adoption is the steady decline in prices for flat screens since 2004, and the imminent inclusion of HDTV capability as a standard feature in flat screens sold throughout Europe.
Ofcom has finally laid out its proposals for bringing free-to-air high definition channels to an upgraded Freeview platform. In certain regions, three high definition channels could appear on Freeview as soon as next year, with up to four available in all areas after the digital switchover is complete in 2012.
The BBC hopes that by 2012, at least 70% of BBC programming will be made in HD. 2012 will mark HD’s coming of age in the UK, according to the corporation.
HDTV – or High Definition Television – is a digital television broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than traditional formats. It offers superior picture quality to standard television, with greater clarity, smoother motion, richer and more natural colours and surround sound.
Current Market
BSkyB continues to dominate the UK HD market, with over 1.3 million subscribers (Q2 2009) capable of accessing 13,000 hours of HDTV a month, across 33 HD channels. These include high-definition versions of the Sky Sports channels, Sky1, Sky Arts and others such as Discovery, National Geographic and the History Channel. 14% of all Sky subscribers now take its HD services.
Virgin’s HD services now have around 248,000 subscribers according to Screen Digest. This summer, Virgin announced the launch of six new channels on the cable platform, including HD services from Channel 4, ESPN, LIVING, FX, MTV and National Geographic. By August 2009, there were 300 hours of HD content available on the Virgin VoD service.
The BBC estimates that there are nearly 19 million HD-ready sets in use in the UK, with independent estimates suggesting almost 45% of UK homes are now HD-ready. The corporation itself, claims 1.2 million viewers per month to its HD content.
ITV launched its HD service, exclusively on Freesat with live coverage of the Euro 2008 football championships in Austria and Switzerland. ITV HD will become ITV1 HD when it relaunches for Freeview HD in December 2009 – to include 35% ‘native HD’ content at the start of 2010. Freeview is set to launch its first HD services over the next couple of months.
Globally, just 42% of homes with an HDTV set will be active and actually receiving HD programming by the end of the year, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. However, the commentator expects HD programming to be much more readily available by 2013, with around 65% of HDTV set homes receiving content; equating to 214 million global TV homes.
Impact On Advertising
While 42% of TV sets in the UK are HD ready, the majority of these are not connected to an HD service and therefore not HD-enabled.
However, as take-up of HD devices and services increases, more advertisers will move into this arena to take full advantage of the new technology and what it can offer. Procrastinators claim that the service will enhance the appeal of TV, leading to increased viewership and advertising.
A recent CRE study in the US found that HD increases viewing by more than 5% (especially sports), backing up findings from Jack Myers which suggests that claimed engagement with advertising on HD channels for viewers with HD sets was 10% higher than for standard definition.
Jack Myers US research also shows that HDTV viewers, paying significantly more attention to advertising, are also more likely to consider advertising to be a recommendation.
Going Forward
HDTV is finally on the brink of mass market acceptance according to Informa. While just 5.5% of global homes will actively watch HD programming by the end of 2009, this equates to 65 million active HD households, up from 24 million households by the end of 2008.
By 2013, Informa forecasts there will be 214 million active HD homes (17% of all TV households), more than 3 times the number expected by the end of this year.
59 million European households are currently equipped with HD-enabled TV sets and this figure is set to grow to 116 million in 2010 (51% penetration) and explode to 220 million in 2018, according to EuroConsult. Driving this adoption is the steady decline in prices for flat screens since 2004, and the imminent inclusion of HDTV capability as a standard feature in flat screens sold throughout Europe.
Ofcom has finally laid out its proposals for bringing free-to-air high definition channels to an upgraded Freeview platform. In certain regions, three high definition channels could appear on Freeview as soon as next year, with up to four available in all areas after the digital switchover is complete in 2012.
The BBC hopes that by 2012, at least 70% of BBC programming will be made in HD. 2012 will mark HD’s coming of age in the UK, according to the corporation.