• by Wayne Friedman , December 11, 2008

The Nielsen Co. says almost one-quarter of U.S. television households have high-definition TV sets--a sharp improvement over a year ago.

November registered a 23.3% HDTV penetration number, up from 12.8% in November 2007. In July 2007, the first month Nielsen started reporting on HDTV penetration, levels sat at 10%.

Sports programming is the highest-viewed programming on HDTV sets. It had an index of 154, with sports commentary right behind at 139. That means sports programming viewing from HDTV is 54% above the average; with sports commentary 39% higher. Political programming was the third-most-popular category at a 125 index.

In regard to individual markets, Washington, D.C., has the highest HDTV penetration, with 31.1% of homes. Boston and New York with 30.5% and 30.2%, were in second and third place, respectively. Detroit has the lowest HDTV levels: 20.9% of homes.

For November's data, Nielsen surveyed five networks--ABC, CBS, CW, FOX and NBC, looking at total day viewing from 10/27/2008 to 11/23/2008.