Commentary

2/3 of U.S. Households Have Hi-Def TV... With Room For More

by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 13, 2012

According to new consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, 69% of households in the United States have at least one high definition television set, up from 17% in 2006. Over the past five years, 52% of US households adopted HDTV.

In addition, 48% of HDTV households have more than one HDTV. Overall, about one-third of all US households now have multiple HDTV sets, up from about one-sixth of all households two years ago, and 4% five years ago. Yet, about 45% of TV sets in HD households, and close to 60% of all TV sets in the US, are not HDTVs.

Other findings include:

85% with annual household incomes over $75,000 have an HDTV compared to 67% with annual household incomes of $30,000-$75,000, and 48% with annual household incomes under $30,000
Mean reported spending on an HDTV sets was about $940, 23% less than two years ago, and about half the reported spending five years ago
Among those getting HD programming from a cable, satellite, or Telco TV provider, the perceived mean number of channels of HD programming is 75, up from 53 two years ago, and 28 five years ago
Less than 3% of all US households currently have an HDTV set that is 3D-capable, and 45% of this group do not watch any content in 3D
Nearly 80% of adults in the US have heard of 3D TV; of those, 5% are very interested in getting a 3D TV
21% of all households purchased a new TV set in the past 12 months, and 19% of all households plan to purchase a new TV set in the next 12 months

Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, concludes that “... in just the past five years, over half of all US households have adopted HDTV, bringing the total to nearly 70% of all households having at least one HDTV set... still close to 60% of all TV sets in US households are not HDTVs... ample opportunity for the sale of more HDTV... “

HDTV and 3D TV 2011 is based on a telephone survey of 1,302 adults age 18+ from throughout the continental US that was conducted in November 2011. The random sample of respondents was distributed and weighted to best reflect the demographic and geographic make-up of the US. The overall sample has a statistical margin of error of +/- 2.7%.

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2 comments about "2/3 of U.S. Households Have Hi-Def TV... With Room For More".

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Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, January 13, 2012 at 9:13 a.m.
How many of those HDTV sets actually receive HDTV signals? With so few people (about 8% of homes) getting their signal over an antenna , they may be viewing standard-definition signals on their high-definition receivers because they don't pay extra for the HD channels..
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John Grono from GAP Research, January 13, 2012 at 5:13 p.m.

Good point Doug. Down here in Australia we found that when monitoring digital penetration asking the respondent led to overclaims - put simply many of the average punters think that a large flat-screen is an HDTV.

Funny story about when we set up the tracker for digital radio. Again we asked the standard "do you have a digital radio?" question. The thing is we were in a pilot test phase and digital radio hadn't been launched - yet we were getting ownership claims. Of course we did QC checks with the respondents so that we could tighten the questionnaire. The funniest response was "yes, I am sure it is a digital radio - and it even has a buzzer to wake me up if I don't hear the radio alarm".