Magid: U.S. HD Home Penetration Reaches 25 Percent

An estimated 5.5 million American households bought HD television sets (for the first time) in the crucial selling period from the early holiday season of 2007 in November to just before the Super Bowl.

Also, according to a survey by Frank N. Magid Associates, about 25 percent of America’s nearly 114 million households now have at least one HD set—a 5 percent jump from just last September. And in another finding that will now begin to be a factor in gauging HD’s growth, approximately 3 million U.S. homes added a second HD monitor in the same winter timeframe.

Thus, Magid estimates that just less than 10 million U.S. households now have at least two HD sets each.

Still, a rather sizeable minority of HD set owners are not watching HD broadcasts, per se. Magid said about 30 percent of HD households are neither subscribing to HD channels via cable or DBS, nor pulling HD signals in via antenna. Reasons cited for not paying extra for HD tiers includes the fees, as well as a lack of HD channels from which to choose.