High-def found to increase ratings in sports programming
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 7th 2008 4:42PM
posted Dec 7th 2008 4:42PM
Go ahead, pick your jaw up off of the floor. We'll wait. On the real, you can't possibly be surprised to hear that high-def makes sports entirely more palatable, and a recent Nielsen study on the matter has found that HD broadcasting of sporting events has increased ratings on those very events by quite a margin. The numbers show that at least 22% of US households receive HDTV programming (up from 10% in September 2007), and its ratings for TV sports are 20% higher than the US overall. Even though we know the answer (or, so we think), we'll pose the question to you -- are you more inclined to tune to sports if an event is in HD?[Via SED-HDTV]
This story reminds me of my father. I bought a color tv after watching a football in color at a friend's house. He watched the game on Sunday and bought the color tv on Monday
Sports seem to the be #1 incentive for HDTV sales, more so than movies and video games in my estimation.
Any note of whether the increase would be the same for sports without cheerleaders?
I have to say, I have enjoyed screaming at the TV as much as my husband for years, but when he brought our first hdtv home (at that point a Vizio 32") and turned on the game for the first time I was silent in awe. I love watching movies too, but nothing can beat sports on HDTVs.