Despite the economic recession, Americans seem willing to spend on high definition television (HDTV) technology with more than one-third households in the United States now have the new TV sets, marketing information company Nielsen said in a report released on Friday.

The report found that as of February 2009, 33.3 percent of U.S.TV homes had at least one HDTV set, a substantial increase over February 2008 when only 19.3 percent of homes owned one.

"Not since color TV was introduced more than 50 years ago has anew TV technology been so rapidly adopted," Nielsen said.

According to the report, Asian homes in the United States had the greatest HDTV penetration rate of 41.8 percent, followed by white households of 34.3 percent.

The switch to HDTV doesn't necessarily mean that households are ditching their old standard TV sets, the report said, noting that on average each U.S. household now has 2.6 TV sets.

HDTV-capable homes are simply re-locating the old TV sets to bedrooms and the basement, and may use them for a dedicated purpose, such as video gaming, the report showed.

"It's clear that despite the current economic climate, HD remains on course to become the benchmark in TV viewing," Steve McGowan, a senior vice president at Nielsen, said in a statement.

"As prices of HDTVs continue to fall -- a trend that might accelerate in the current environment -- and circumstances such as the digital transition create new opportunities to promote the sets and programming, HDTV will continue to gain a greater foothold in U.S. television homes," he added.

U.S. federal law requires that by June 12, 2009, the nearly 1,800 full-power television stations in the country must all stop broadcasting in analog format and broadcast only in digital format.

Source:Xinhua