Two in five U.S. television owners now have an HD set with a digital HD receiver, said U.K.-based ABI Research in a report last week. However, most don’t pay a satellite or cable provider the $10 to $20 extra charge each month for digital HD programming.

This could be because of disc players and broadband downloading, or that most don’t even know they must pay for HD programming. “Some are satisfied with the alternatives to get HD content, such as broadband video and DVDs,” said Cesar Bachelet, senior analyst, multichannel video, at ABI.

North American consumers bought 10.3 million HDTVs in the fourth quarter, up 52 percent from a year earlier, according to NPD Group unit DisplaySearch. By 2012, more than 85 percent of U.S. households will have both HDTVs and access to HD signals either over the air, through a digital HDTV receiver, or through a subscription service.

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