The number of homes worldwide with HDTVs will climb to 151 million by the end of 2011, a threefold increase from the number at the end of last year.
The prediction, part of "HDTV: A Global Analysis" released last week by Informa Telecoms & Media, also showed that the United States, Japan, China, the UK and Germany were the top five markets for the number of HD set homes worldwide and will remain so in 2011.
According to the report's author Adam Thomas, even though consumers are attracted to HDTVs because of their image quality and falling prices, a lack of HD programming can lead to a degree of disappointment.
At the end of 2006, the United States had 27.7 million HDTV homes, giving it a 58 percent share of the global total. Japan followed with a 20 percent share.
Echoing previous findings from In-Stat, there appears to be a significant difference between the total number of homes with HDTVs and those that subscribe to HD programming.
Of the 48.2 million HDTV households at the end of 2006, 16.4 million had a set-top box or an integrated HDTV set required to view HD programming. In other words, only one-third of homes with an HDTV set are receiving HD content. By 2011, Informa expects HD programming to be much more readily available, and some 70 percent — or 105 million HDTV homes — will be receiving HD content.
For more information, visit www.informatm.com.
