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With the 2010-2011 TV season
set to become the first in history for which more than half of U.S. homes
are equipped with high-definition TV sets, HD production has become more
norm than novelty. But while most high profile programming is now shot in
hi-def, much work still remains to be done before HD TV becomes synonymous
with television viewing.
This fall, viewers will see a number of important developments in both the
quantity and distribution of HD programming, with the amount of HD shows
available on demand or online increasing faster than ever. A new HD
entrant can be found at CBS, with "The Talk" bowing in hi-def in October.
CBS soap "The Bold and the Beautiful" will, however, remain in standard
def. ABC has already taken three of its four daytime shows to HD.
Virtually all of the high-profile dramas and comedies from the major cable
networks currently air in high-definition.
MASS MARKET HD
Beyond the production and distribution of more HD content this year, major
changes in the HD landscape are also occurring at home. With HD sets now
available in 60.7% of all homes-up nearly sixfold from the start of the
2007-2008 season according to Nielsen-viewers will enter the 2010-2011
season better equipped than ever take advantage of the proliferation of
hi-def programming.
More sets, however, hasn't necessarily cleared up some of the issues about
distribution. While three-fifths of all Nielsen homes have an HD set, only
55.4% are actually getting an HD signal from either a multichannel
provider or a digital antenna, which means there are still 6.1 million
homes that have spent hundreds of dollars on an HD set they can't use to
watch distributed for hi-def programming.
"There is still a lot of confusion out there," argues Bruce Leichtman,
president and principal analyst at the Leichtman Research Group, which
produces an annual survey each fall tracking HD viewing habits. He notes
that only 36% of viewers who bought an HD set in 2009 were told what they
needed to do to get HD programming.
Still, those numbers represent something of an improvement. In the second
half of 2009, surveys by Leitchman, Frank N. Magid Associates and The
Knowledge Network all found that less than two-thirds of all HD homes were
able to watch HD TV channels, with Magid estimating that about 14 million
homes with HD sets are not able to watch hi-def TV programming because
they aren't getting HD services from a multichannel provider.
Some of the improvement since then may reflect the fact that operators are
increasingly offering HD for free as part of digital packages; also, most
new digital set-top boxes are HD-ready.
"The number of people subscribing to basic analog cable, where you had
only standard-def channels, is declining rapidly," notes Patricia
McDonough, senior vice president of policy and analysis at Nielsen.
In January, 2010 Nielsen upgraded its systems so that it could more
accurately track HD viewing. In past, more HD programming has generally
meant that HD viewing patterns increasingly track overall ratings, and
that viewers watch more of their favorite shows in HD, which has boosted
the amount of time spent watching hi-def fare. Nielsen is now reporting
that more than 70% of all viewing in HD homes consists of hi-def
programming. That marks a big change from only a year ago, when some
surveys were reporting that HD set owners were spending more than half of
their time watching standard-definition TV.
"Some viewing in standard definition may reflect that people are
forgetting to go to HD channels but a lot of it, I think, is from people
watching TV in other sets in the home that are still standard definition,"
notes Nielsen's McDonough. She expects the proportion of HD viewing to
continue to rise as people buy HD sets for bedrooms and other parts of the
house.
That may also exacerbate the trend toward fragmentation and time-shifted
viewing. HD homes are by definition digital TV homes, which makes them
much more likely to have DVRs and a wider array of channels, notes Maryann
Baldwin, VP of Magid Media Futures at Frank N. Magid Associates, which
produces an extensive annual survey of HD viewing each year. "It just
increases the incredible challenges of growing fragmentation," she said.
Source: Broadcasting & Cable,
09/06/2010 |