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For anyone with about $3,000 to invest and a lot of couch time to fill, purchasing a High Definition Television will be the next logical step up the technology food chain.
Over the past couple weeks, one of the most important technical achievements of the Olympic Games was that NBC broadcast most significant events in HDTV. (For some strange reason, NBC chose to broadcast the events in HDTV a day delayed.)
However, the quality of the images shown in cinema-like (letterbox) format, or 16:9 aspect ratio, was unbeatable, with absolutely breathtaking colour and resolution. It even made watching the final of the men's hockey tournament interesting ... despite knowing the outcome (they win in HDTV, too). Seriously, it really is like "being there", a promise that TV can finally deliver on.
However, progress towards developing HDTV programming, particularly live programming, especially in Canada, has been painfully slow.
In the U.S., the transition from the current analogue to digital television, which will no doubt result in full HDTV (and not some lesser digital version like the current Fox offering), has been mandated by the regulator. It is a no-brainer to predict that once the technology reaches an affordable price point that Americans will turn in substantial numbers to HDTV broadcasts.
Given the pressure of the market in the U.S., HDTV will likely become the standard, and this will occur within the next three years. Today, Americans can receive many prime-time network schedules in true HDTV resolution and format.
Canadians don't have the alternatives available to Americans. Of course, there haven't been as many HDTVs sold here, due to the high price, and only about two million or so households in the US have digital reception capabilities.
In Canada, who knows what the numbers are? In addition to the required TV, you also have to be able to decode the signal, which requires the digital cable service, plus an extra box (or in the case of satellite an HDTV decoder which is over $700). The overall cost of entry for any household is high.
Aside from a lower price, what will surely drive the initial adoption of these new technologies will be movie DVDs, which cannot really be fully experienced unless you have the right stuff. The combination of wide-screen, perfect picture and huge sound is unbeatable.
But back to Canada. Clearly, Canadians will buy this technology, according to our research at POLLARA. Canadians will want access to materials in this format. And like most technology adoption, the wave will come sooner than expected and will be steeper than anticipated.
Are we ready? Is our broadcast system ready? Broadcasting executives and industry experts I've spoken to over the last few days wonder. There is no regulatory framework, there is little material and broadcasters complain about the costs.
Let's face it, there's no choice in the matter, and delays will simply mean that the HDTV-ready Canadian households will drift to American programming. Will the CRTC move to block access to U.S. HDTV signals? Possibly, but they would risk the same feedback they got when trying to block access to U.S. direct-to-home satellites. Surely, we learned from that, and from the Internet and from other technologies that leading is better than following, and just keeping up is for the birds.
(Duncan McKie is President of POLLARA Inc., Canada's largest domestically owned polling and market research firm. Mr. McKie specializes in new technologies and media
Over the past couple weeks, one of the most important technical achievements of the Olympic Games was that NBC broadcast most significant events in HDTV. (For some strange reason, NBC chose to broadcast the events in HDTV a day delayed.)
However, the quality of the images shown in cinema-like (letterbox) format, or 16:9 aspect ratio, was unbeatable, with absolutely breathtaking colour and resolution. It even made watching the final of the men's hockey tournament interesting ... despite knowing the outcome (they win in HDTV, too). Seriously, it really is like "being there", a promise that TV can finally deliver on.
However, progress towards developing HDTV programming, particularly live programming, especially in Canada, has been painfully slow.
In the U.S., the transition from the current analogue to digital television, which will no doubt result in full HDTV (and not some lesser digital version like the current Fox offering), has been mandated by the regulator. It is a no-brainer to predict that once the technology reaches an affordable price point that Americans will turn in substantial numbers to HDTV broadcasts.
Given the pressure of the market in the U.S., HDTV will likely become the standard, and this will occur within the next three years. Today, Americans can receive many prime-time network schedules in true HDTV resolution and format.
Canadians don't have the alternatives available to Americans. Of course, there haven't been as many HDTVs sold here, due to the high price, and only about two million or so households in the US have digital reception capabilities.
In Canada, who knows what the numbers are? In addition to the required TV, you also have to be able to decode the signal, which requires the digital cable service, plus an extra box (or in the case of satellite an HDTV decoder which is over $700). The overall cost of entry for any household is high.
Aside from a lower price, what will surely drive the initial adoption of these new technologies will be movie DVDs, which cannot really be fully experienced unless you have the right stuff. The combination of wide-screen, perfect picture and huge sound is unbeatable.
But back to Canada. Clearly, Canadians will buy this technology, according to our research at POLLARA. Canadians will want access to materials in this format. And like most technology adoption, the wave will come sooner than expected and will be steeper than anticipated.
Are we ready? Is our broadcast system ready? Broadcasting executives and industry experts I've spoken to over the last few days wonder. There is no regulatory framework, there is little material and broadcasters complain about the costs.
Let's face it, there's no choice in the matter, and delays will simply mean that the HDTV-ready Canadian households will drift to American programming. Will the CRTC move to block access to U.S. HDTV signals? Possibly, but they would risk the same feedback they got when trying to block access to U.S. direct-to-home satellites. Surely, we learned from that, and from the Internet and from other technologies that leading is better than following, and just keeping up is for the birds.
(Duncan McKie is President of POLLARA Inc., Canada's largest domestically owned polling and market research firm. Mr. McKie specializes in new technologies and media
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