HD via broadband Internet to emerge in 2007, researcher predicts

Will some HD viewers up the speed of their broadband Internet connection to download their favorite HD programs and movies and cancel their pay TV service next year?

They will if In-Stat’s end of year forecast for 2007 hits the mark. A new white paper, “In-Stat Predictions 2007,” foresees that by the end of next year, some customers will demand 30Mb/s Internet connections from their ISPs to download HD programming and disconnect from pay TV.

Among the reasons cited:

• Better quality image than many digital cable offerings;
• A way to defeat bundling of unwanted, unwatched networks in service packages;
• A wireless HDMI link between PCs and wide-screen HDTV by the end of next year;
• Availability of quad-core Intel CPUs;
• New Intel-based computers from Apple.

The market researcher predicts that one of the first major opportunities consumers will have to use this strategy will be downloading HD versions of some Disney films to be made available via iTunes next year.

The white paper predicts that broadband Internet HD downloads will initially be confined to high-end computer users; however, the trend will make pay TV operators and Hollywood studios, which believed the file size of HDTV would insulate it from such downloads, take notice.

For more information, visit www.instat.com.