The Yankee Group's 2003 Digital Home Entertainment survey, which examines consumer adoption levels of digital equipment and services, confirms HDTV momentum awareness is up, but consumers are confused about their hardware and service options. HDTVs were among the slowest growing entertainment applications for the first four years they were available, compared to other consumer technologies. Since 2001, however, market growth has picked up substantially. Driving this surge has been the combined efforts of broadcasters, programmers, cable and satellite operators and consumer electronics device manufacturers. The survey base is a representative sample of U.S. consumers derived from a total telephone sample frame (TTF) using random digit dial (RDD) sample selection.
Ten percent of those who had heard of HDTV had already purchased one, and six percent were receiving HDTV programming. Of these homes, 55 percent received HDTV signals via a cable set-top box while 30 percent received them via satellite. When asked why they selected their current provider, consumers largely chose their existing multichannel video provider, or did not have a choice of providers. A small percentage of homes received HD signals over the air, via indoor or outdoor antennas. In an attempt to combat the availability of DBS, cable operators made HDTV available to 70 million U.S. homes at year-end 2003.
Eleven percent of homes without HDTV are very interested in buying one, and another nine percent are somewhat interested. Interest is higher among young males under 25 years of age, and generally declines among older demographics.
For the complete Yankee Group survey results, visit www.yankeegroup.com.
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