Nielsen to Target HD Audience

Nielsen said yesterday that starting in November, it will begin tracking the number of high-def households, where high-def owners are located, and demographic info like income and age.

The data, which has been coveted by advertisers who’ve had a hard time targeting the nascent high-def crowd, will be available in January, 2008.

The Consumer Electronics Association reports that 28 million U.S. homes have high-def sets, but it’s unclear how many are actually watching HDTV programming on any given night, as many HD owners do not have the high-def tuners necessary to display HD channels.

Multichannel News reports that Nielsen’s first challenge in tracking the high-def audience will be to define what is a high-def home.  As of now, Nielsen and clients are considering two such definitions: a home with an HDTV and an HD tuner, and a home with an HDTV, an HD tuner, and reception to at least one channel devoted entirely to HD broadcasts.
 

Blurry HD Image Irks March Maddness Fans in KY

Some of Kentucky’s HD viewers may very well experience a blurred or broken up HD image during tonight’s NCAA hopps championship game, and according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, the picture distortions, TVPredictions reports, have been causing a March madness of their own.  Pun fully intended…

“People have asked us about the TVs: ‘Is there something wrong with my television’ ‘Is there something wrong with our cables?’” Tony Spires, a local electronics retailer, tells the newspaper. “We just have to do a lot of explaining.”  High-def sleuths in Kentucky are pointing to everything from the local CBS station’s (WKYT) decision to multicast (divide its signal into three channels), to CBS’ source feed, to the transmission of the local cable and satellite providers.

The Herald-Leader reports that even though picture break-up, or sudden blurring, is not uncommon to high-def viewers in any area — especially during sports broadcasts which feature sudden movement –WKYT’s break-ups during March Madness games are a special case.  WKYT  airs three digital channels: the CBS feed, a 24-hour weather channel, and a feed from the CW network.  WKYT officials say they have solved any signal degradation by recently installing new equipment, and are placing the blame on either CBS or the cable or satellite operators.

The Herald-Leader, however, notes that a CBS Sports executive recently blamed signal breakupon multicasting. In support of this assessment, Lexington’s WLEX, for instance, claims its HD picture improved dramatically after dropping a second digital feed.  Nonetheless, WKYT is sticking with its three digital channels: “We were afforded the opportunity to also broadcast The CW network, and we would have been fools not to have taken advantage of that,” said WKYT engineering vp Chas Callaway.