Awareness of high definition TV is growing rapidly and a relative lack of broadcast high defintion programming in Europe will encourage increased sales of high definiton DVD discs, according to Jim Bottoms, managing director of industry analyst Understanding & Solutions, speaking at a Blu-ray Disc Association event in London last week.

In Western Europe, Bottoms forecasted that by 2010 there will be some 115 million HDTV sets in use, but only around 17 million homes will have access to high definition (HD) broadcast services. “With consumers increasingly aware of the benefits of high definition but unable to access HDTV services, then the demand for pre-recorded HD media is bound to increase significantly,” said Bottoms.

The situation is not the same in the US where the market watcher predicted that by 2010 there will be around 138 million HDTVs in use and some 81 million homes will receive high definition TV programming.

Bottoms also pointed to the launch of the Blu-ray enabled Playstation 3 in the US last November as an important market driver and he predicted a similar effect in Europe following PS3’s introduction last month.

“PS3 has succeeded in changing the focus and boosting Blu-ray disc’s interest. By the end of 2006, a total of one million high definition players of all types were in use in North America including over 750,000 PS3 players," said Bottoms.

“Now, over 80 per cent of total US installations are Blu-ray Disc and BD software title sales are outstripping HD-DVD by a significant margin. During the first week in January Blu-ray Disc accounted for 68 per cent of all HD title sales and one week later that figure had increased to 72 per cent,” he added.