[demented]

8.4% is from a gigantic base of people. I just don't agree with playing the numbers game. When Sky+ HD breaks through a million in the next quarter or the one after there'll still be people saying that there aren't a million gazillion HD subscribers so HD is a niche product for lunatics with good eyesight. There'll still be people saying that when sky reaches 2 million HD subs.

I think sky's nearly 800 000 subs is good because
(a) of the £10 subs
(b) how pricey the box was until fairly recently
(c) the recession
(d) saturation of the market by PVRs already.

Non-enthusiasts mention HD quite often now to ask questions. They say something along the lines of I have already got/am getting a HD television how do I get some HD channels/ how many HD channels are on freesat/freeview/virgin media and then they get what is a very disappointing response to them of 1 (+1 red button service)/0/1. Oh they say, that's awfully disappointing I don't want to pay sky loads of money, I'll wait a few years in that case when BBC1/2/ITV/C4/Five are in HD. I don't think this is complete disinterest I think this is healthy interest, it's something people are interested in but don't want to pay a fortune for. I think the public are actually ahead of some of the broadcasters and waiting for the content. Broadcasters and providers are doing the classic in the information age of not providing any content (apart from sky) and then throwing a tantrum and saying bleakly that there's no interest because the public are skeptical about shelling out vast amounts of money for virtually non-existent content. We've seen this many times.