Though the number of U.S. homes with HDTVs continues to rise, almost half of those homes aren"t watching high definition programming, a new study found. In-Stat reports that 17 million of the 39 million U.S. households with HDTV, or 43.6 percent, don"t watch in HD. The finding is based on a recent survey of consumers and defines "HD programming" as paid high definition services from cable and satellite providers and free broadcasting over the air. Packaged media, such as Blu-ray disc and video games, are not included.
Michael Paxton, an analyst for In-Stat, told CDFreaks that there are two main reasons why so many HDTV owners are still watching in standard definition. Cost was a major factor, with consumers saying they didn"t want to fork over extra fees to lease an HD set-top box or to get HD channels. Also, consumers often said the amount of high definition programming wasn"t enough to justify the extra effort.