Improving picture for high definition television

Zenobia Talati, the report’s author, said: “High definition has found a mainstream market in the U.S. and Japan, and by 2010 we expect it to have made significant progress towards acceptance in Europe. Although set prices are falling, they remain relatively high and that means uptake over the next couple of years will be steady rather than spectacular”.

At end-2005 the U.S. will have 16.5 million HDTV homes, giving it a 58% global share, followed by Japan with a 27% share. With an 85% share between them, the two represent by far the most dominant forces in the global HD market.

Importantly, of the 28.6 million HD households, just 9.8 million have the necessary settop box (or integrated HDTV set) to enable content to be viewed. i.e. they are actually viewing HD content, rather than simply having the potential to do so. This means that only a third of homes with an HDTV set are receiving HD content. By 2010, Informa expects HD programming to be much more readily available, and more than 75% of HDTV set homes will be receiving content - or 80 million homes.

According to Adam Thomas, media research manager at Informa, and the report’s co-author: “By 2010 the HDTV sector will have evolved from a few early-adopter countries, to a thriving global market, where all players along the value chain have recognised the benefits of HDTV, and are investing accordingly.” He added: “With consumer demand growing, greater content availability and the price of high definition sets falling, HDTV is on track to becoming a mass-market reality.”

The 100-page report HDTV is published by Informa Telecoms & Media, which produces several media business publications, including the TV International and New Media Markets newsletters. The report will be published in September 2005.