Likely Subscribers To HDTV Jumps To 30%

Max Willey, Continental Research’s head of media, said: “This is a large increase from the 17% who last year said they were likely to subscribe to HDTV and probably reflects the fact that most TVs for sale now are HD-ready, and that Sky and Virgin Media (the only two HDTV subscription services available) have been heavily advertising their HD services.

“The overwhelming majority of adults who said they were likely to, or already do, subscribe to HDTV said they would subscribe to Sky’s HDTV service (83%). As Virgin Media (15%) doesn’t offer as many programmes in HD as Sky (currently it gives access to BBC HD and additional HD on demand) this is not a surprising result.”

A report published at the end of October found that almost 14% of TV households in the US are equipped with an HDTV set and HD tuner capable of receiving signals in high definition.

The Nielsen Company report revealed that more than 11% of US TV households are equipped with an HDTV and HD tuner and receive at least one HD network or station (see Almost 14% Of US Households Are HD Enabled).

A forecast from Strategy Analytics earlier this year predicted that 90% of UK homes will be watching High Definition TV by 2020, as long as Ofcom allocates spectrum on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform for HDTV (see 90% Of UK Homes Could Be Watching HDTV By 2020).