Improving the viewer experience? Or simply selling more HD TV sets and services? It’s hard not to be cynical when take-up of HD doesn’t come cheap. Apart from needing an HD-ready TV set, currently starting at over US$700, HD set-top boxes are around $200, and, in Singapore for example, StarHub’s HD Plus service costs around $10 per month for two channels: Discovery HD and National Geographic Channel – on top of subscribing to a minimum of 3 StarHub Digital Cable Basic Groups. No amount of telling the consumer that ‘the switch from SD (standard definition) to HD will be as transformational to the viewing experience as the transition from black and white to colour’ is going to convince viewers to hand-over the best part of $1,000. In fact if this contributor had a dollar for every time she’s heard that phrase of late, her own personal HDTV fund would be coming on quite nicely. But cynicism aside, there’s no doubt that sports will prove a considerable driver of HDTV in the months to come, given that the Beijing Olympics 2008 are to be offered in HD.