The Jan. 4, 2011, edition of “HD Technology Update” led off with a story titled “HDTV households now dominate U.S. viewing landscape, says new LRG study.”
The title inadvertently overstated the position of HDTV in U.S. households. The Leichtman Research Group study, entitled “HDTV and 3D TV 2010,” found that 61 percent of households now own an HDTV, compared with 12 percent in 2005.
While HDTV-equipped homes are now in the clear majority of all U.S. households, that’s not the same thing as dominating the U.S. viewing landscape, as conveyed in the headline of the story. A gap still exists between HDTV households and those paying for HD programming service or receiving free HD OTA TV. Additionally, millions of SD sets are used as secondary and tertiary TV receivers.
Thus, it’s accurate to say HDTV households are in the majority of all TV households, but not that HDTV dominates the viewing landscape.
