ESPN Audience 22 Percent Higher in HD Than SD Homes

“We know from those ratings that the programs we do not yet do in HD rate less,” Burns said. Nielsen will report HD viewership data starting midyear, he said. That was confirmed by a Nielsen executive in the audience, who said his company is collecting data on HD viewing and will be able to break out data on use of HD PVRs. “Everyone wants to talk about advertising and rates,” Burns said. “I would steer you in the direction of sponsorships, which is a first cousin of advertising.” HD has helped ESPN take in “dozens of millions” in sponsorship revenue the past 4-1/2 years, he said. In Q-and-A, Burns said ESPN’s standard-definition audience and advertising haven’t decreased.

Citing Discovery Networks data, Burns said HD ads create three times the brand recognition that SD ads do, with intent to buy 55 percent higher. “Those kinds of numbers will get advertisers’ attention as more and more customers get screens and services,” he said. Proportion of HD ads on ESPN-HD varies by program, Burns said. On Monday Night Football, about 60 percent of ads are in HD, he said. “Watch the Super Bowl,” he said. “I'm guessing only 20 percent of the ads will be in SD, the rest in HD.”

ESPN-HD is available to 93.2 million households, Burns said. “We wouldn’t have guessed that, frankly, five years ago,” he said. He would have forecast 45 to 50 million, he said. ESPN-HD -- though “a very expensive operation” to launch and maintain -- is “reaping great benefits for us” in commercial sponsorships and affiliate support, Burns said. The company has two HD channels and will start two more this year, he said. ESPN News launches March 30 in HD, with a new HD channel dedicated to college sport, ESPN-U, debuting Aug. 28, he said. ESPN parent Disney will start three other new HD channels, he said.

Future TV Show Notebook…

Cost is “the biggest issue” in the 15-channel Voom HD service’s failure to gain cable and satellite distribution as wide as HD simulcast services have, Voom General Manager Greg Moyer told the conference. “Because we exist only as HD, we're asking for an affiliate rate, which makes us more expensive to the operators,” Moyer said. By contrast, HD simulcast services “are being offered on many platforms at no incremental cost,” he said. In the U.S., only Cablevision in New York and EchoStar nationally carry Voom HD’s 15 channels, Moyer said. Bandwidth is another hurdle, but satellite’s move to MPEG-4 and cable’s and IPTV’s to switched digital video will open bandwidth, a good augury for Voom HD, he said. “As we get more of these technologies deployed, you'll see operators of either IPTV or cable systems on a global basis able to add more HD,” he said. “Because we're 15 channels, the one requirement we've asked is that operators not cherry-pick us.” Adding 15 HD channels is a lot to ask of operators, given today’s bandwidth limits, he said. “That’s been as much a problem” as anything blocking Voom HD’s expansion, he said. “But thankfully, that’s going away.”

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AT&T will release deployment data on its U-verse IPTV service Thursday with its Q4 results, said Amy Friedlander- Hoffman, senior vice president of programming for AT&T Operations. AT&T said U-verse had over 126,000 customers at Q3’s end and was adding more than 10,000 a week, she said. It forecasts a million subscribers by year-end, and weekly installs are expected to have grown to 40,000, she said.