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News
HD Hardware Sales Booming, Networks Dragging Feet
Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 4:00 PM - by John Martellaro
The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), the trade association that represents both hardware and content, noting the explosive sales of HDTVs, has urged the industry to take more aggressive action in the marketing and merchandizing of high definition products. Meanwhile, networks have dragged their feet, faced with the high costs of generating HD content.
A mid-year Home Entertainment Sales update obtained by iPO from DEG revealed that 4.5 million HDTVs were sold in the U.S. in the first half of 2007, a 50 percent growth over the same period of 2006. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has predicted that 16 million additional HDTVs will be sold in the remainder of 2007. That will bring the total to more than 52 million HDTVs in U.S. homes by the end of 2007.
Because many households have more than one HDTV, the U.S. household penetration of HDTVs is estimated to be 36% by the end of 2007.
Sales data from retailers and manufacturers showed that the sales of DVD players, which peaked in 2004, are flat for the year -- suggesting that customers are starting to think about HD disc players. The data also showed a slight decline in DVD title sales compared to 2006 so far this year.
" ... we encourage the industry to take a more aggressive action in the marketing and merchandizing of high definition products so that we can help consumers transition to a high definition experience," Steve Nickerson, Vice Chair of the DEG Communications Committee told the Entertainment Merchants Association this week in Las Vegas.
Even so, observers of the industry are not happy with the content being displayed on all that new, expensive HD hardware. Phillip Swann, of TVPredictions, lamented on Friday the dearth of actual HD programming this summer.
"Out of the 13 hours of programming last night from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW, only four hours were in high-def," he wrote. "...the networks have concluded that fewer people watch TV in the summer so why bother with offering quality programming, particularly in high-def, which is more expensive to produce. Just hire a washed-up comedian, lasso a few contestants from the audience, and slap a catchy title on the show, such as Deal or No Deal. The production values are not important."
In addition, some analog content is being reformatted to 16:9 to appear as if it is HD content, fooling many viewers.
So while consumers are spending thousands of dollars on new HDTVs and sound systems, the networks seem to be dragging their feet. HD content, with the analog cutoff date just 578 days away, is not yet pervasive on network TV. How much longer viewers will have to wait is anyones guess.
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