Research from In-Stat found that U.S. HDTV households (those with an HD-capable TV set and receiving and watching HD programming) grew by almost 40% in 2008. The growth rate could have been higher, however.
Mike Paxton, analyst at In-Stat, points out that " 'in the U.S., there are more than 39 million households with an installed HDTV set. However, only 22 million of those are HDTV households, meaning that 17 million U.S. households with an installed HDTV set are not watching HD programming.' "
In-Stat also found that there were over 36 million HDTV households worldwide by the end of 2008, up from 29 million at the end of 2007. It will be 2011 before the number of HDTV households in Europe reaches the 10 million mark.
Cable and satellite TV service companies provide HD programming to almost 80% of all HDTV households. Telco TV service providers and terrestrial broadcast TV service companies provide service to the remaining ones.
Source: Cartt, 01/26/2009