Consumers get to grips with HD technology

Freeview has announced that around 642,000 homes are now watching high definition (HD) Freeview transmissions. Whilst consumers are clearly taking to new TV technologies, retailers need to give them a helping hand so they can get the most out of the wealth of TV services that are now available.

We conducted a mystery shopper exercise at the end of last year and found that the majority of the UK’s leading high street retailers had a distinct lack of knowledge of Freeview. A key concern was that despite the heavy promotion of Freeview HD last year, not one member of staff pointed out that the viewer must live in a HD-enabled area in order to receive HD content. And a third of retailers didn’t even have a staff member available to advise consumers on these new TV technologies.

There still seems to be a divide between exciting technology advances and what is being used and understood by the consumer. The building blocks have been put in place but the TV industry as a whole needs to focus on educating consumers so that they can get the most out of their viewing experience.