• by David Kaplan , March 31, 2005

As of right now, there are 10 million homes watching high-definition TV programming on a HDTV sets worldwide with an additional 5.5 million households expected to join them by the end of 2005, a study by market researcher In-Stat reported Wednesday.

As for the United States, there are currently 4 million HDTV households--up from 1.6 million in March 2004, according to In-Stat.

The rate of growth of HDTV households will continue to be strong over the next several years, and by 2009, HDTV households worldwide are forecasted to reach 52 million, said Mike Paxton, an analyst for the Scottsdale, AZ-based researcher.

Still, as impressive as this growth is, considering the six billion people in the world, the adoption of HD is actually quite slow. For one thing, HDTV services are widely available only in the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, and South Korea.

"Even with the rise in the number of HDTV households, there are still several market challenges slowing the spread of HDTV service," Paxton said. "Foremost among these challenges are the need for more HDTV content, continuing the education of the public about the benefits of HDTV, and widening the geographic availability of HDTV services, especially in Europe."

There has been a lot of cheerleading by the technology and media industry for HDTV, Paxton noted. In-Stat's report alluded to a recent survey of U.S. consumers showing that 76 percent--a startlingly large number--of the respondents had watched HDTV programming on an HDTV set. However, as In-Stat noted, many of the respondents said that they had simply seen a demonstration of HDTV in a retail store.