TV content owners may be moving quickly on HD programming; TV advertisers for HD commercials are another story. A new study says advertisers using HD in their commercials were just 13% of all the TV creative that ran in the fourth quarter, with 87% of TV advertising running in SD, standard definition. This was relatively flat from preceding periods. The study was produced by Boston-based digital video ad network company Extreme Reach. Two of the biggest ad growth categories for HD "adoption" -- airing as least one HD ad on at least one HD TV outlet -- have been automotive marketers, now climbing to 29% rate, and retailers. Automotive was at a 20% rate in the third quarter of 2010. Retailers are now at 34% in the fourth quarter, from a 29% in the previous period. Overall, looking at all advertisers, the adoption rate -- airing at least one HD commercial on at least one HD network -- has remained steady at 40%. The content side of the business is ahead of advertisers, waiting to accept far more HD commercials. Eighty-three percent of broadcast programming can take advertising content in HD; cable networks are at a 59% level. Extreme Reach says now more than one-third of all local broadcasters can do HD messaging, at 34%, with local cable at 58%. But when looking at the actual receiving of HD ads, that data shows there is room to grow. Broadcast networks are getting 32% of TV ads in HD; cable is at a 27% receiving rate; local broadcast, 7%; and local cable, 5%.
Source: MediaPost, 01/21/2011