Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is stepping up promotion of high-definition TV in its stores by paying for satellite bills of customers who buy a new HDTV along with DirecTV service. From looking at the details, it looks like a promotion like this is probably much more attractive than running constant "sales" on HDTV sets.

Best Buy will pay $30 of a new DirecTV customer's monthly satellite television bill for 12 months as part of the promotion geared towards increasing awareness of hi-def TV among its customers, the retailer announced last week. There are caveats, of course. Customers taking advantage of the promotion must sign up for one of DirecTV's high-definition programming packages and the customer must also purchase a new HDTV set worth at least $999. The retailer will pay for six months of $30 HD programming if the new HDTV set is priced under $999.

Al things considered, this is one of the neater promotions I've seen from the consumer electronics retailer, specifically geared towards getting HDTVs into the hands of more customers. The cost of HDTVs isn't in the set itself, but in the pricing of programming. It's true that over-the-air HD programming from local networks is free, but there's a whole world of niche HD programming available from cable and satellite. Here's a suggestion, Best Buy: pay $30 of a new HDTV customer's bill for 24 months with a new HDTV purchase of $1999 or more, since most of them cost that much anyway.

Verizon (NYSE: VZ)'s roll-out of HDTV and broadband with its fiber-to-the-home product looked so promising. It even got shareholders in cable companies nervous. They were worried that the phone company would start to take away their digital cable TV customers.

All of that was looking very good for Verizon until it started to run out of the set-top boxes that make the HDTV system work in homes. As if things were not bad enough for Motorola (NYSE: MOT), it looks like the company's set-top operation may be at fault. The Wall Street Journal says ,"a Motorola spokeswoman confirmed that demand for the HD set-top box was 'strong and has exceeded expectations. We are pleased with this positive response and we are working closely with our suppliers to ensure that we meet the needs of our customers as quickly as possible.'"

What a lot of bull. While the market may never know where the mix-up was, Verizon certainly knows how many customers it plans to add and its inventory of boxes. Motorola knows what the demand is across its customer base and whether its manufacturing can handle the load.

Either way, Verizon has given its competition a gift. Who wants high-speed wiring that won't work with the TV?

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Warner Brothers, part of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), has decided that its HD material will only be released on the Sony (NYSE: SNE) supported Blu-ray format. That is bad news for Toshiba, which has championed the rival HD-DVD technology. According to Reuters "Warner Bros., Hollywood's biggest seller of DVDs, represents about 18 to 20 percent of sales in the United States and was one of the few studios that backed both formats."

While the news is good for Sony, it is hard to say whether it will speed high definition DVD adoption. The fact that there are two formats has confused consumers. This has likely kept them out of the market and forced them to rely on HD content delivered over cable and satellite. As a matter of fact, it may be a key to improved satellite TV subscription numbers.

The presence of two formats has likely also helped the new fiber-to-the-home products from telephone companies like Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). They have enough bandwidth to support a number of HDTV channels.

Sony may have gotten some good news, but consumers may have already turned elsewhere for high definition content.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Welcome to the 42nd installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Last week, I looked at how Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) competes against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) locations. Best Buy seemed to have the edge when it came to low prices on items like flat-panel televisions and laptop PCs this holiday season, and in my opinion, Wal-Mart's allure to the consumer electronics shopper is not growing despite attempts to beef up that department in Wal-Mart locations.

This week, I'll peer into this year and look at what has gone right and what has gone wrong for the world's largest retailer. 2007 was an odd year for Wal-Mart from many angles, and 2008 promises to be every bit as captivating for the world's largest retailer in the global markets it serves. So, let's dig in.

For several years, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) was considered one of the most successful companies in America. It used its cable franchise to build a huge broadband, VOD, and VoIP cash machine. The so-called "triple play" of voice, TV, and broadband could not be matched by telecom competitors, so Comcast took hundreds of thousands of phone customers away from them each quarter.

From mid-2003 to early 2007, Comcast shares rose close to 100%. During the last three months, they are down 27%.

It finally occurred to Wall Street that competition from satellite TV and the new fiber-to-the-home products from telecom companies like Verizon (NYSE:VZ) were eating into Comcast's customer base. The company recently announced that its growth and cash flow would be less than expected. Customer growth was slowing and the firm had to put more money into infrastructure so that it could improve offerings for products like HDTV.

An influential cable analyst, Benjamin Swinburne of Morgan Stanley, says the slide in Comcast shares is over. According to Barron's the analyst "notes that the stock's multiples have been compressed to historic lows." He also thinks EPS and free cash flow could grow as much as 20% a year, if Comcast can keep adding voice and HDTV customers.

The logic for Comcast making a comeback may be a little thin. Verizon's FiOS is taking customers from Comcast and it is only in a small fraction of the 18 million homes that will eventually have access to the service.That means that the head-to-head competition for the cable company will actually increase. And satellite TV companies continue to ramp up their programming and HDTV offering.

The worst is probably not over for Comcast.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) has said it will be rolling out quite a few new initiatives to increase customer awareness and education on the digital television transition set to occur in 2009. This should come as no surprise, as there will inevitably be millions of U.S. consumers who will needlessly fret when the analog television signals currently being broadcast cease to exist in a little under two years.

This is where Circuit City has a chance to shine. For years (well, for a decade, really), the consumer electronics chain has been beaten by larger rival Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY), and the pressure has only become more intense in recent years.

Circuit City no doubt sells quite a few television sets, although the profit misses and generally bad quarters in the last six months or so has been largely attributed to the declining profit margins on flat-panel televisions. This is the very product Circuit City now wants to trumpet as it reaches out to consumers to offer education well ahead of the actual analog-to-digital hand-off.

Technology continues to evolve faster than most of us can follow -- if you blink, you might miss the next-best thing and find yourself surrounded by obsolete devices. My pale-pink iPod Mini is less than 3 years old and already worthy of mockery -- and don't get me started on my embarrassingly large collection of single tapes. MP-what?

At least Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) is helping prevent consumers from unknowingly buying a television that will quickly be seen as a relic. It's taking all analog television sets off the market. The familiar electronics retailer told its store locations to drop analog offerings at the beginning of October and focus exclusively on selling flat-panel and high-definition sets.

By February 17, 2009, all U.S. television programming will be required to be digital, as ordered by the Federal Communications Commission. Those holding on to old analog sets will be able to convert to the sharper signal using boxes, satellite equipment, or other methods of conversion. More than 60 million U.S. viewing households still watch their favorite shows via analog cable or antennas, and the government plans to offer coupons that can be used to purchase converter boxes. Where can one redeem such coupons and acquire such boxes? Well, Best Buy, of course, beginning early next year.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

It was not supposed to happen this way. Cable TV companies had advantages over telecom and satellite TV firms. They could offer TV, voice, and broadband as a bundle. Satellite could not. And telecom companies had to finish expensive fiber-to-the-home deployments to get into the TV business.

Yet shares of Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), the largest cable company, trade near their 52-week low at under $24 while AT&T (NYSE: T) seems to make a new high every day. DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) also trades near its high.

Telecom broadband may be taking customers from cable faster than expected. Another problem cable has is the fact that satellite and fiber allow for more HDTV channels. According to The Wall Street Journal DirecTV has 55 HDTV channels compared to a little over 20 at the big cable companies.

Cable companies say they are not taking the problem lying down. They have come up with new ways to add bandwidth, allowing them to offer more HDTV. One involves only sending TV signals to areas where a channel is actually being watched.

Cable company stocks are down. Perhaps the reason is that they had a chance to upgrade their systems for HDTV but simply waited too long.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Customers at Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) stores may have walls full of slim, flat-panels televisions to pick from. But trying to make a decision about which TV to buy means more than picking large or larger. Increasingly, it requires deciphering a baffling array of terms that have come to define the current state of broadcast and television technology.

According to a recent survey conducted by the largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S., consumers are more confused than ever about just what is an 'HDTV.' Try the below terms on for size. If more than two terms confuse you, you're not alone:

My guess is that the majority of television-watching American have no idea that in about two years, those analog television signals beaming TV programming to all those television sets will go away permanently in favor of the newer all-digital signals.

In fact, the radio spectrum that is being vacated by the shutdown of those analog television signals is being highly sought after for all kinds of uses; mainly, high-speed Internet access over wireless devices or another radio band in which companies can provide wireless voice service, including possibly Google.

What can leading consumer electronics retailers like Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY), Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) do to alleviate the pain? How about capitalizing on this in perfect promotional fashion and sell newer high-definition sets like never before? There are also concerns that will come from the advertising industry, and who will make the devices to allow older TVs to tap into the newer digital airwaves? Many questions abound. Read on.

Has the battle over the television remote ever been won? The fierce battles over which programs to watch, when to watch them and who would like to watch them have been the center of many household struggles all over the world. Yes, the blow(s) have been softened by TiVos and multiple televisions in many cases, but with certain prime-time (and other) programming now being beamed through the air in hi-def format, the battle may have been re-ignited.

In that arena, a new study by the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. -- Best Buy Company Inc. (NYSE:BBY) -- concluded that the influence of women on consumer electronics purchases is quickly growing. The interest in consumer electronics goes even beyond aesthetics, which comes as a surprise to many. The survey had a result which I found astounding -- women have a much higher interest in the technical aspects of setting up a home theater. Wow.

What is Best Buy doing? Why, ensuring its female contingent is properly served, of course, "Deciding on an HDTV is an emotional purchase – we've heard from many couples that it can be as complex a decision as deciding on a car or even a house," according to a Best Buy executive. A television purchase is up there with a car or even a house? Holy cow those are some odd priorities. But, as the television is such a multi-modal entertainment device, I guess it makes sense.

I guess those who thought that the days of the television were over with the advent of the Internet did not consider the female factor in the equation -- as I didn't see "Broadband Internet Access" in that list.

Although Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is about to release its AppleTV product that it hopes will bridge the divide among the PC and the living room entertainment center, how far has the consumer electronics world come in this arena?

There have been numerous attempts to actually make the TV and PC one device -- or at least a nice ecosystem -- but have any caught on with consumers? Not a one, although there are arguments that some devices have made "inroads."

I say, to where? Only one person I know of has a complete bridge between his TV and home entertainment system and the content of his PC as well as a live pipe to the Internet from the television/main living room.

With flat-screen TVs (LCD and Plasma, mainly) being THE hot category in retail electronics these days, the bevy of brands, selections and formats has never been quite as...confusing. The sheer number of brands alone is staggering. But then this is just what happens any time a consumer electronic product gets hot.

When the ubiquitous iPod came onto the scene, names you've never heard of (and may never again) began offering their versions of "digital music players. Same goes for digital cameras a few years back.

Now digital TVs -- HDTVs to be exact -- are entering that same buying frenzy economists and marketers call the "tip of the product cycle." With the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) starting soon, makers of everything from HDTVs to credit card-sized camcorders to earring MP3 players (?!) will be showing their wares and signing deals with distributors and retailers. They will help clog up the supply pipelines of Best Buy Co.,Inc. (NYSE:BBY), Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE:CC) and other retailers with plenty of selection, price points, features and....other things most consumers could care less about (except price).

I've been studying Vizio, a company that came out of nowhere a few years ago to take the plasma TV scene by storm by selling very decent-quality flat-screen TVs at prices that make Sony and Samsung shudder (even today). Are we going down the product lifecycle pricing curve now? Expect 2007 to be a definite answer to that question. We'll check back a year from now.

Plasma HDTVs have always seemed to have had a curious target market. Back in 2000, when the industry was really just beginning to explore the possibilities, I was working with a company that sold used goods on eBay. We did a favor for our dotcom bank, helping the account managers liquidate some assets from a bankrupt fellow startup. The prize was a 60-some" plasma screen, which I very quickly sold to a man in Kentucky for a hefty sum. He drove down to pick it up and I learned he had paid his entire monthly paycheck for the giant toy -- but he still lived with his parents, so where else was he going to spend his web designer salary?

Now that 22-year-old web site designers are no longer making six-figure salaries, HDTV manufacturers have had to change their marketing strategy a bit. Instead of marketing to dotcom CEOs and their overpaid, pixel-hungry staffers, they're now marketing to the regular Joe. This is the one who has just enough room left on his credit card for these plasma HDTVs being offered, according to BFads.com, at $1000 and less. Here are just a few of the reported deals we found:

Wal-Mart
42" Widescreen Plasma HDTV -- $988

Target
37" LCD HDTV -- $1097

Best Buy
42" LCD HDTV -- $999

Circuit City
52" Rear-projection HDTV -- $999
40" LCD HDTV -- $999

Worried about the futures of companies with huge television and cable businesses, like News Corporation (NYSE:NWS), Viacom, Inc. (NYSE:VIA), Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), as American consumers supposedly watch less TV?

Count the sheer number of television sets around the country these days and it will ease your worries. In barber shops, tanning salons, grocery stores, day cares, massage parlors and pizza joints -- Americans love their television viewing time. In fact, TVs now outnumber the quantity of actual humans inside U.S. households. There are 2.73 televisions and only 2.53 actual people in the average American home.

This stat flies in the face of research that says television networks are losing throngs of customers to ad-skipping TiVo and Internet browsing, among other things.

Is television viewing on the decline? The number of TVs would *seem* to indicate that TVs are being utilized now more than ever.

New TV technology is a big part of that story. Huge and heavy CRT televisions are now being replaced by LCD TVs at a fast rate, which opens up new areas where TVs can be placed. It's hard to have a 15" TV on the kitchen counter, but you can throw a 15" LCD TV there pretty easily these days without compromising space. Why not watch The Food Channel while cooking up a Paula Deen recipe in the food center of every home, the kitchen? Paula would call that faintsy.

With half of American homes having three televisions these days -- and only 19% having just one -- it's hard to imagine the television going away anytime soon. That would be some packed landfills in the next decade if predictions of "the death of TV" were to come true!

It's the content that will come across those screens that is likely to change, yes? HDTV, cable television, DBS satellite and possibly WiMAX-TV will all be battling for each viewer while still trying to get viewers to watch advertising that gadgets will make an afterthought. So, how many TVs do you have in your household?