CEA: Consumer Acceptance of HDTV on the Rise

The Consumer Electronics Association reported this week that nearly half of all consumers plan to make their next TV purchase and HDTV. CEA projects that total digital TV sales will outpace analog TV sales for the first time this year (although dollar sales of DTVs surpassed analog TVs in '03).

According to the survey results, awareness of DTV terminology has sky-rocketed in the past 18 months. Nine out of 10 adults are now aware of at least one term used to refer to high-definition television, such as "digital television" or "HDTV." Seventy-six percent of U.S. adults say they are familiar with details about the new TV sets. In addition, the percentage of adults who are not familiar has fallen by half, from 42 percent in 2003 to 22 percent today. Finally, 84 percent of consumers have seen an HDTV somewhere in the last 12 months, whether it was in a retail store or in their own home.

CEA also surveyed consumers' reaction to the eventual analog cut-off. When consumers who receive television signals, in part or in whole, via antenna on their primary TV were asked what they would do if they could no longer receive these signals with the antenna they currently use, 52 percent (up from 46 percent in 2003) said they might buy a digital to analog set-top box converter and 66 percent (up from 57 percent in 2003) said they might subscribe to a cable or satellite service. Among those homes that receive television signals only via antenna (12 percent of homes, according to this survey), the figures are 48 percent and 56 percent, respectively. Only 21 percent of antenna-only households are very likely to "do nothing."