Audio Video News

Research firm Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that there will be 151 million HDTV homes worldwide by the end of 2011 - a three-fold increase over the current total of almost 43 million.

The U.S. leads (and will continue to lead) the rest of the world with a 58% global share of HDTV households. Japan follows with a 20% share. No figures are available, however, for how many HDTVs are actually made in China and then sold to the two main HDTV-consuming countries.

The research report, "HDTV: A Global Analysis", says that only 16.4 million of the 48.2 million worldwide HDTV households currently have a digital set-top box or integrated Digital TV tuner, and thus these folks are obviously not watching HD content. fortunately for the HD content providers, the percent of HDTV sets watching HD programs will rise to around 70% by 2011.

Obviously, some of these people haven't really come to terms with the February 17, 2009 analog TV cutoff deadline. (Or maybe they're hoping for a last-minute commutation by the President once he/she realizes the campaign season for the following Presidential election begins February 18, 2009.)