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.