HDTV Adoption in the U.K. Continues to Grow

LONDON: By 2016, 94 percent of U.K. households will have an HD-ready TV set, according to the latest forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media.

The worldwide average is 48 percent, putting the U.K. third globally, behind Canada and New Zealand, which will each be at 95 percent. In 2005, just 3 percent of the world’s households had an HD-capable TV. Sales for HD sets have been growing rapidly, with a net of 60 million households forecast to be added this year alone. This means that 23 percent of the world’s primary TV sets will be capable of receiving HD programming by the end of 2011.

“Owning an HD-ready set does not, of course, automatically mean reception of HD programming. But, by 2016, 70 percent of the world’s homes with HD sets are forecast to be using them to watch HD programs,” said Adam Thomas, Informa’s media research manager. “Again, the U.K. is ahead of the game, with 72 percent of HD-ready homes expected to watch HD programming by 2016. But this time it is well behind the global leader, which is the U.S. at 91 percent. The U.K. lag is caused by the popularity of Freeview, which is forecast to have only around half of its users watching HD programming by 2016.”

HD programming penetration is at 82 percent in the U.S. this year, rising to 91 percent by 2016. Belgium follows with a current 40-percent penetration, to reach 89 percent by 2016. Sweden is set to rise from this year’s 44 percent to 88 percent in the next five years. The global penetration for HD programming is at 45 percent currently, set to reach 70 percent by 2016.

These numbers indicate that, by the end of the forecast period, TV services in several countries will be approaching the point where most, if not all, of their users are watching HD content. Added Thomas, “This raises the interesting prospect of a second wave of switchovers after 2016, with standard definition being switched off and HD effectively becoming the new standard definition.” He continued, “The extra capacity freed up by such a move would then raise the possibility of another generation of SuperHD appearing, which would offer an enhancement to what will, by then, have become standard HD.”