Studies from ABI Research are perfect for making us feel embarrassed about Americans' home theater habits. And after we feel ashamed, we just feel angry.
Earlier this month, the research firm reminded us of how bad we are at slinging video around a home network — only 7% of us with HDTVs have figured out how to do it.
Today comes a reminder that things are even worse. While 41% of TV owners have an HDTV, only 56% of HDTV owners subscribe to an HD service package.
We suppose that's slightly better than an earlier ABI report that said
fewer than half of HDTV owners subscribe to HD packages, but its not
much of an improvement.
A reminder: Best Buy wants to prevent new-HDTV owners from being duped
into thinking their picture quality looks great with standard
definition signal. Buyers of $1000+ HDTVs at Best Buy can get $30 off
the price of a DirecTV monthly HD bill for a year.
We can't help but wonder that if the government spent as much money on
high-def signal awareness as it does on the public service
announcements for the analog-to-digital switch in 2009, whether ABI's
next study would show a vast majority of HDTV owners watching true HD. —Rachel Rosmarin
