Colts, Bears drive HDTV sales

A lot of people like to claim the pornography drives early adoption of technology, but there's a good argument that sports nuts are more important.

Retailer Crutchfield says that HDTV sales are up 67 percent in Indiana while they are up 27 percent in Illinois through the second week in January. That's no coincidence: The Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears have made it through the playoffs and into the Super Bowl. (Antiques Roadshow is also making a Midwestern swing, but it's impossible to gauge the impact.)

Crutchfield saw similar patterns for flat screen TV sales in 2005 and 2006. Sales grew by as much as 400 percent in markets where the local team was in the game.

TV execs and broadcasters have largely pitched HDTV at sports fans. In a survey conducted on behalf of ESPN last year, 22 percent of sports fans said they watched sporting events they would not have watched because they now have HDTV, while 22 percent of those who do not count themselves as sports fans reported that they have HDTV. And you wondered why there were so many retrospectives of Anthony "the Pearl" Earl on these days.

A lot of innovations in flat screen TVs are coming to market to placate sports fans. Samsung, Philips and others are releasing LCD TVs with a 120 herz refresh rate, twice as fast as normal, so that fast moving images will appear more clearly on LCD TVs.

What better way to experience the power and glory that is the NFL, as John Facenda might say.