The research by Informa Telecoms & Media put the US top of the pile with 27.7m homes there enjoying sharper pictures and better colour, with Japan taking second spot with a 20 per cent share of the global figures. The UK was fourth with 2.03m HDTV homes. That figure is predicted to be 8.8m by 2011.

Japan and the US make up nearly 80 per cent of the HD market between them. But while 48.2m had sets capable of showing hi-def content, only 16.4m households had a set-top box or integrated HD receiver to actually watch HD, the rest had presumably paid a lot of money on a set that shows standard telly pictures in a way that is no better than a normal box.

The report's authors said that HDTV will be in 70 per cent of homes by four years' time.

"The public has really taken to high-definition, attracted by falling prices for impressive looking sets," said the report's author Adam Thomas. "But the problem remains that once people get these sets home from the showroom, they can be disappointed with the results. First they have to subscribe to a content service and even then there can be relatively little to watch."

From our experience, some of those so-called HD channels show most up-scaled SD programmes, which could be construed as cheating.