Although DTV didn't immediately revolutionize the television industry, a new report from the Yankee Group predicts that 41.6 million homes (nearly 40 percent of U.S. households) will receive HDTV by 2007. (The 2003 number is pegged at 3.2 million homes.) Rapid deployment of HDTV by cable operators and growing availability of HD programming will contribute to the rise.
Initial deterrents were the high prices of HDTV monitors and receivers, bandwidth limitations of cable networks, unavailability of HD content and the high cost of digital conversion for broadcasters, says the Yankee Group. The group also advised that, with HD monitors currently in less than 5 percent of U.S. homes, terminating the analog signal would be highly premature.
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