Less than Half of Canadian HD Set Owners have STBs
This may sound like déjà vu for some observers of American trends, but more than half of Canadian viewers polled who own HD-capable sets don't have the set-top boxes required to view HD. Also, according to the Canadian news source Globe & Mail, many of those HD homes are not even aware that they need the extra equipment to bring in HD channels (which the publication points out may be an indication that some people think they are watching high-definition shows when they clearly are not).
The survey, conducted by Ipsos-Reid and commissioned by The Movie Network of Canada, found 14 percent of the 1,000 people surveyed currently have an HD-ready television set (a higher percentage than in the United States).
Among the group of more than half that have HD sets but no HD-capable STBs, slightly more than 40 percent said there isn't enough HD content available from Canadian (and presumably American-accessible) broadcasters to make it worthwhile to get a box. Approximately 20 percent of Canadians surveyed said they bought the more expensive HD monitors mainly to watch DVDs in high definition (a practice not uncommon among HD set owners in the United States, too).
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