For this months’s installment of it doesn’t take much to amuse me…
As of Aug. 29th CBS has finally started broadcasting The Late Show with David Letterman in High Definition.
I’m guessing it’s taken so long because statistics I read in last week’s TV Week show that only 13 million homes in the U.S. have HD televisions and sadly only a third of those, a little more than 4 million, have access to HD programming. That statistic is stunning for two reasons. One, it’s still a very low number in terms of total televisions out there and two, there’s almost nine million HD sets in homes and people aren’t even watching HD content. That’s kind of like having a Ferrari and only driving it to the end of the driveway for the mail. While I do realize that DVDs look better on HD sets, until later this year when Blu-Ray or HD DVDs become available one is only viewing about half the resolution of which the television is capable.
Anyway, Dave looks great in HD. It’s about time.
Posted by todd at August 29, 2005 10:56 PM | Trackback
I’m surprised, as well, as CBS was way ahead of the other networks as far as intoducing Hi-Def in their primetime shows is concerned. Not to mention the competition of Leno being the first and only HD program for a long while.
If they don’t think 13 million people is worth any trouble, maybe they need to speak to their advertisers again, who will reform their opinion with dollar signs.
The problem now is receiving HD. The normal ignorant consumer often doesn’t realize that just because they buy a nice new HDTV, they still aren’t going to get it; they need to subscribe to it if offered by the cable or sat provider, if not revert back to the good ol’ antenna, which many people long forgot about :)
I’ve met two people in the last month who had nice new big screen tvs and no idea they weren’t receiving HD.
Posted by: Josh Wardell on August 30, 2005 07:30 AMI think HD TV is like wireless internet. I’ve lost track of how many people have come to me saying they bought a wireless internet card for their computer but can’t get online. No one told them they need to sign up to a service…
I have an HD TV but haven’t signed up for the HD service as I can’t face adding more $$ to my cable bill.
Posted by: ukpylot on August 31, 2005 10:31 AM