The trouble is, unless you live in Texas, Missouri or Georgia, you probably won't be able to find a sports bar that carries any sports programming in HDTV. Nationwide, only 126 sports bars are listed as carrying HDTV programming, and 50 of those are in those states I just mentioned, respectively. Several states have none. (The list is from HD.net, a national network broadcasting all of its programming in HDTV. Granted, there may be other sports bars that carry HDTV programming on cable or satellite, but I've never seen any advertised. If you know of any here in the Philly area, let me know). You do have the option of going to a retail outlet like Circuit City or Best Buy, but I doubt they'd appreciate you and your buddies showing up with beverages and snacks and parking yourself in front of their HDTV floor models. But I do have an idea that could quickly spread the sale of HDTV sets, which would create a thirst for more HDTV programming, sports and other, but more on that later.

I first saw an example of HDTV about 10 years ago at a national television convention. Since then, much has been written about it. Laws have been passed. Deadlines have been established. And millions have been spent and will be spent by the TV industry to meet those deadlines. Yet for all this, virtually no one has ever seen a TV program in HDTV. I say virtually because when compared to all those who have a TV set in the US, the percentage of those hooked up to HDTV is miniscule. Here in the Philly area, the number I've been quoted is around 30,000.

I recently spent some time working for a cable sports channel which broadcasts some local professional sports games in HDTV. Having never seen a major league baseball game or hockey game or basketball game in HDTV, I asked where I could go to watch one. As a fan, I wanted to see what these games looked like in HDTV. No one knew. No bar, no restaurant, no sports club, nothing? No one could give me the name of anyplace where I could go and watch a game in HDTV, yet they were spending lots of money to air them and promote them. It was great for their image and for those few that had an HDTV set, but it didn't do much to spread the benefits of HDTV viewing to those of us who've never seen it. But in their defense, they are the programmers, and cable hook-up is not their job. (A representative from Comcast cable did tell me that Comcast plans to roll out digital cable hook-up to public places like bars and restaurants in the next few weeks).

Luckily, one of the managers did invite me to watch the Phila. Phillies play in HDTV on a TV set in the building. I was amazed. The clarity is so complete that you can see beads of sweat on the pitchers face. Every wrinkle, every hair---talk about warts and all! You can clearly see the faces of almost everyone in the stands. We joked that if someone were to sneak into the game with their girlfriend, they'd better hope their wife isn't watching the game on HDTV! And the image is so wide! You can see some much more of the field of play&whether it's the baseball diamond, or the hockey rink. The thought that crept into my mind was that if most sports fans could see what I was seeing, HDTV sets would be flying off the shelves.

So here's my idea&the cable companies, HDTV sports programmers, and the sellers of HDTV need to take HDTV to the people. No matter how many people hear about HDTV, only seeing their favorite sports programs in HDTV will motivate them. Since it's mostly men who watch sports programming and mostly men who spend gobs of money on giant screen TVs, it will have to be HDTV sports programming that will lead the way for the integration and use of HDTV.

Here's a couple ways it can be done&go to a national sports bar franchise (Hooters comes to mind), and create events on nights where some local professional sports team is playing in HDTV. Invite local retail stores to set up various HDTV models, (along with salesmen to answer any questions and hopefully, sell some sets). Have reps from the cable company there to sign up service for the needed digital hook-up.

Sports fans will watch their team in HDTV, love it, and act immediately to get it into their home.

The other scenario is for cable companies to go to national sports bar chains and cut a deal where the sports bars get the cable service in exchange for co-oped advertising to tell the public where they can go to watch it.

I've seen sports programming in HDTV, and it is the best thing on TV; now, we only need to get the public, especially sports fans, to see it and it will sell itself.

About the Author

Paul Greeley writes often about TV and TV marketing for TVSPY.com and an on-line newsletter called Graeme Newell's Marketing IdeaNet. Paul started his career at an ad agency, and moved over to the TV side as a writer/producer and then marketing and creative services director for stations in Ft Myers, New Orleans and Orlando. Paul recently returned to his hometown in Philly and is now the Marketing and Communications Manager for Omicron Consulting, a software development company. To contact Paul, e-mail him at pgreeley98@aol.com or phone him at 610-687-6222.