Research from GfK suggests that by the end of the year there will be 31 million HDTV capable households in Germany, with about 90% of all new devices sold this year being HD Ready.
The 31 million HDTV households in the country are divided between 20 million TV sets with an integrated HD tuner and 11 million HD set-top boxes.
“The number of installed HDTV sets has already tripled from 2009 to 2010 to 12 million units and this will increase later this year by another 75%,” said Dr Rainer Hecker, chairman of the board of the consumer manufacturers association GFU. Last year the market success of HD was mainly due to “major sporting events such as the Olympic Games, the football World Cup and Formula 1, which were for the first time in 2010 broadcast in HD. HDTV has now arrived and the audience has embraced it enthusiastically.”
During 2010 the market for HD set-top boxes showed an increase of 216% for HD cable tuners (475,000 units) and one of 169% for HD satellite receivers (2.3 million units). Last year for the first time more HD set-tops were sold than SD boxes. The comfort solutions for the digital and HDTV receivers, TV sets with integrated digital tuners, have now become the standard, with a share of more than 90% of all TV sets including one. Also, close to one million Blu-ray players were sold in Germany during 2010.
According to GfK, German viewers can tune in to around 25 HD channels – a number which is expected to grow to around 30 before the end of the year.
