A total of 10 million homes worldwide were watching HDTV programming on HDTV sets as of March, according to a new study from In-Stat (a sister company to Multichannel News).
The research firm expects that total to reach 15.5 million by year-end and 52 million by 2009.
In-Stat said there are currently 4 million HDTV households in the United States, up from 1.6 million in March 2004.
“Even with the rise in the number of HDTV households, there are still several market challenges slowing the spread of HDTV service,” In-Stat analyst Mike Paxton said in a prepared statement.
“Foremost among these challenges are: the need for more HDTV content, continuing the education of the public about the benefits of HDTV and widening the geographic availability of HDTV services, especially in Europe,” he added.
