According to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, over 75% of Australian households have converted to digital TV.

While the initial take up was slow digital TV has accelerated recently thanks to the ongoing Freeview advertising campaign and the Federal Government’s promise to cut off the analogue TV signal in 2013.

That means there are now around six million households able to access10 HD channels with SBS HD simulcasting programming of SBS ONE in high definition.

So you don’t have to be Einstein to realise that with this many options on our remote controls, TV viewing is UP.

Not only are we watching more TV, but TV advertising grew by an epic 17% in 2010 thanks to some monster hits such as Packed to the Rafters, Masterchef and Dancing with the Stars.

Over the summer period we watched an extra 12 minutes of TV a day in metro markets and an extra 24 minutes in regional markets.

The top programs according to OzTAM and RegionalITAM were dominated by sport, news and entertainment.

And when you look at the audiences that these programs pulled in, it’s easy to see why Murdoch and Packer bought in to Ten. Sport?

So where does that leave the new HD channels?

According to Mark Kennedy, MD of Vivaki Exchange, almost 40 % of TV viewing is now soaked up by the multichannel environment, yet it only accounts for about 15 percent of the TV industry’s ad revenue.

That says to me that the five analogue networks – ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten are desperate to hold on to their existing audiences and ad revenues.

This could also explain why they’re super busy generating new programming for their respective HD channels.

In addition, the analogue networks and their HD offshoots will remain under constant threat from Pay TV, YouTube and online TV resources such as http://www.multipleversesvault.com/

So where’s the buying buzz for auto dealers?

In the media world, spot rates will always reflect ratings and audience delivery but the combination of standard and digital stations can now deliver a lot more frequency at a cost effective price.

One of our clients complained the other day that the only advertiser on SBS2 was Freeview, to which our media buyer replied that they were probably getting four free bonus spots for every two they paid for.

So with deals like that available, isn’t it time you switched some of your ad budget to one or more of the new HD TV channels?

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