HDTV: The Big Picture
David Evans, director of Continental Research, discusses the current state of the HDTV market and how it might progress in the future…
HDTV is one of the current buzzwords in our industry and appetites have been whetted by the recent launch of BSkyB’s HDTV service and the transmission of World Cup matches and Wimbledon in high-definition.
However, how many of us have it in our homes and how may people are likely to enjoy “the biggest thing to hit our screens since colour”?
Looking at the market situation in the UK at the moment, demand outstripped supply during the summer, with many consumers who hoped to get Sky’s HD service instead having to make do with the same picture as the rest of us due to the lack of boxes available. Whilst encouraging, these boxes will have been snapped up by early adopters rather than the public as a whole.
Looking at Freeview, trials are currently taking place in London regarding the feasibility of the service. However, there are inevitably technological problems ahead in terms of there being enough capacity to be able to deliver a significant number of channels in HDTV, at least until analogue switchoff.
With regards to cable, for many of their subscribers, the companies are promising much but as yet delivering little in terms of technological advancement.
Looking at the content on offer, the question remains if this alone will be compelling enough to entice consumers to put their hands in their pockets and convert.
Only 7 HD channels are currently available on Sky’s platform, including National Geographic and Artsworld, which are unlikely to set the majority of viewer’s pulses racing.
From our Digital TV report, we saw that there is a high level of awareness of HDTV at the moment but only 6% of those aware are “very interested” in the service. This report was also released before the summer’s big sporting events. Our next set of results are due next month and it will be interesting to see whether the lure of these events have raised the interest of consumers in the service.
With the World Cup now a distant memory, there is no major sporting event on the near horizon that could act as a catalyst to drive HDTV take-up. Therefore, price may be the main factor in whether take-up surges or remains static.
Sky’s HD box currently costs £299, which seems to be a bridge too far for the majority of their subscribers at present. Alongside this, Sky Broadband is taking up the bulk of their strategic thinking, as well as marketing spend.
Perhaps once the initial push to drive broadband has died down the focus will return to HDTV and a new push, alongside a price decrease, will bring HDTV back into the forefront of consumers minds.
Of course, the box price alone is not the only outlay consumers have to make. Alongside the box, a high-spec TV as well as a monthly subscription is needed before viewers can receive HD pictures.
And it is not just consumers who are counting the cost. Broadcasters will be looking at the costs of delivering content filmed in HD and will inevitably compare this against the numbers that are actually equipped to watch the programmes.
In contrast, the manufacturers of HD sets will be looking to push the benefits as much as they can as they will have targets to meet and shareholders to appease. Therefore there are a number of different players all with different objectives and agendas which makes it a slightly confused and contradictory market.
At the moment, there are a number of new technologies and concerns that are occupying peoples minds: Video on Demand, IPTV, Mobile TV, triple play and HDTV.
What remains to be seen is whether the vast majority of the viewing public can be sufficiently motivated to commit to HDTV as a standalone product or will they wait to see how the market develops and whether the service, as part of an overall package encapsulating PVR, VoD, Broadband and HDTV for a lower cost, will lead to more of us seeing everything on our screens in greater detail.