The USA seems to be much more into HD than Europe at the moment.
I remember working with a full HD recording studio - cameras, video recorders, edit suite...the works...back in 1996. That was in Nottingham, UK - but little came of it. It was all Dutch stuff - but nobody seemed to care about HD.
LOTS of picture feeds are HD in the States - their satellite system (DirectTV) is all broadcast in 1080i. My local cable feed is 1080i. Some feeds are 720p.
The purists say there is no discernable difference in picture quality between the two.
A lot of eyes are looking forwards to the next generation of HD. My own tv and dvd player are both 1080p (not a typo, that's 1080 progressive).
It looks gorgeous - and is wonderful to watch with 7.1 surround sound.