High definition sets are now in more than 60% of
all American homes, but many stations and programmers are still only taking
standard definition ads from advertisers. A new report from Extreme Reach found
that only 14% of national broadcast, cable networks, local stations and local
cable systems were receiving HD ads, up from 10% in the second quarter.
Part of the problem is that many advertisers are
not creating ads in HD even though the cost of producing in high definition is
generally no more expensive than standard definition.
The study found that only 24% of the ads were
created in HD, with certain more nationally oriented advertisers more likely to
produce high-def spots. About 29% of all financial services ads were created in
HD while only 16% of auto, 13% of retail and 8% of political ads were created
in high def.
Another very large problem is programmers. Over a
decade after the first HD programming began airing in the U.S., the study found
that only 32% of local TV stations-versus 57% of local cable systems, 59% of
cable networks and 83% of broadcast networks-were accepting HD ads.
The results are even more dismal in terms of the
percentage of HD ads actually being delivered to various media outlets. Only
30% of the ads being delivered to broadcast networks were in HD, followed by
23% for cable networks, 8% for local TV stations and 5% for local cable
systems.
The Extreme Reach analysis was based on a sample of
91,000 standard and high definition ads delivered during the third quarter.
