HDTV to grow over next five years. Really!

Can someone tell us what planet JupiterResearch is on? Their five year projection for HDTV adoption is this: growth. OK, perhaps we're a little harsh on Jupiter, but nobody is paying us $1,500 for a report that summarized what we kinda know here on Earth.

Since we're not springing the bills for the report, we can only share the summary information that puts some numbers behind the thoughts. JupiterResearch estimates 69 million HDTV installations by 2010, up from the approximate 13 million in 2004. One particular stat stands out from the summary: the seven major networks provide 26 hours of HDTV programming per day, with almost 50% of those programs coming from PBS.

Lack of programming is a real issue in the chicken-and-egg situation. In our opinion, HDTV sets won't sell as much if there isn't HDTV programming to take advantage of the set. Likewise, producers won't spend the bigger bucks for an HDTV production if nobody owns a set to watch it on. Hey, those last statements sound pretty good. Maybe we should put that in an HDBeat report for purchase?