HDTV is standardized in the US

HDTV is becoming more and more common here in Europe, and the rest of the world, but SDTV is still the dominating format, no doubt about that. The support for HDTV is still quite poor, even though the technology is progressing. However USA is, as most of you probably know, a decade ahead of the rest of us and to make sure that the progress is kept steady the seante has proposed a legislation where all TV-stations must have switched to HDTV broadcasts before April 7th, 2009. With this 3 bilion dollar would be set aside for people with non-compitable HD-TVs.

Source: Gamespot