Survey: HD on par with grub on Super Bowl Sunday

[Gregg Lengling]

The ability to watch the Super Bowl in all of its high-definition glory is quickly becoming as important as the food people eat while watching the annual NFL spectacle, a new Comcast-sponsored survey said.

Comcast, which commissioned ICR/International Communications to conduct a survey of 750 TV viewing households, found that 34 percent of men believe watching the game in HD is important to their decision on where to watch the game, while 37 percent cited the importance of good food. The top two factors that men and women and women together said would factor into the decision were the people (64 percent) and the size of the television (34.7 percent).

Survey participants also ranked the types of plays they would most like to see in HD. Leading the pack was the touchdown pass (26 percent), followed by an interception return (19 percent), and a quarterback sack (12 percent).

Divided by Super Bowl "elements," men ranked the game itself (39 percent) ahead of the cheerleaders (21 percent), while women ranked the halftime show (37 percent) ahead of the game (28 percent).

If given the chance to watch the game in HD on a DVR, customers said they would most use the reverse and replay functions to scrutinize touchdowns and watch the commercials.