Sony Upbeat About Transition To Digital TV

Regardless of what is said about digital TV in Australia, every vendor knows that its full adoption is only a matter of time- and none is happier about that than Sony.

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Sony has said that despite the recent Australian Communication and Media Authority, (ACMA) report on digital TV which in part concluded that “despite the growth in digital take-up, over half of Australian households still need to make the switch to digital free-to-air television, and close to a quarter (24 per cent) of households remain not interested in adopting”, the company believes that ACMA’s research in fact presents some extremely positive news about the transition to digital TV in Australia.

 
 Sony says that since almost 50 per cent of households have already moved to digital TV, it sees this as a “tremendous achievement given that it is really only in the past six months or so that key building blocks have been put in place, such as the announcement of an analog switch-off date, the introduction of more digital content through the new high definition (HD) channels and Government and industry plans to encourage this transition”.

Sony also points out that it is important to recognise the recent trends in adopting digital TV. In the past 12 months the company says, the percentage of households watching free to air digital TV jumped 24 per cent from 17.1 per cent in 2006 to 41.8 per cent in 2007. 

 “These numbers clearly provide a very solid platform of digital TV usage in Australia, and are set to accelerate rapidly over the next few years”, according to Sony.

According to ACMA’s report, a significant proportion of viewers are accessing digital TV via a set top box (66.6 per cent). Given the increasing number of TVs coming to market with integrated digital tuners, this will further encourage consumers to make the switch.

This it turns out is music to the ears of Sony executives, whose company has produced LCD’s with integrated digital tuners for some time.

Encouragingly, Sony’s HD Benchmark, which was compiled independently by GfK reveals that in the past three years, HD TV sales have reached over 1.8 million, which is around one fifth of Australia’s homes, and although the company will not divulge how many of those were Sony’s, it can be reasonably deduced that their marquee brands are on the list of best sellers.