To look at the checkout line in a consumer-electronics store, you'd think we'd fully entered the age of high-definition TV. But a report from Extreme Reach says a different picture emerges when one looks at the amount of TV advertising consumers end up viewing in high definition. Extreme Reach, which runs an electronic distribution network for both high-definition (HD) and standard-definition (SD) TV advertising, analyzed a sample of more than 90,000 commercial deliveries between July 1 and Sept. 30 of this year. Among these commercials, 24 percent were created in HD. But markedly fewer, 14 percent, end up being distributed to their broadcast and cable destinations in HD. The discrepancy stems from the fact that not all TV outlets accept HD commercials. The "adoption rate" -- defined in the report "by whether or not they accept HD advertising content for their broadcasts" -- varied from 83 percent among broadcast networks to 32 percent among local TV stations. The figure was 59 percent for cable networks and 57 percent for local cable systems. The gaps were even wider when the study looked at the percentages of commercials that were delivered to TV outlets in HD during that period. The number was 30 percent for broadcast networks and 23 percent for cable networks; it was 8 percent for local TV stations and 5 percent for local cable systems. Notwithstanding the lag, the trend is toward greater adoption of HD by advertisers and TV outlets alike. But they aren't necessarily moving in tandem. "National networks and national advertisers appear to have found a synchronous pace of adoption that is driving both to adopt HD much more rapidly than local advertisers and broadcasters," says the report. "On the local level, advertisers and broadcasters appear to be out of sync. Advertisers are creating HD commercials in greater numbers and their adoption of HD is outpacing HD adoption by local TV and cable media outlets."
Source: Adweek, 10/21/2010