HTiBs With DVD Increasingly Dominate: NPD

Port Washington, N.Y. — More than two-thirds of the home-theater-in-a-box (HTiB) systems sold to consumers during the first three quarters of this year were equipped with separate or integrated DVD players, up from 53 percent in 2001 and 25.4 percent in 2000, NPD Techworld found.

The availability of DVD-equipped solutions may have ignited an HTiB boom in 2001 and 2002, the statistics also show (see tables 2 and 3). Unit HTiB sellthrough rose every year by higher percentages since 2000, when DVD-equipped models hit the market in full force. Only 2.9 percent of HTiBs sold in 1999 were equipped with a DVD player, NPD found.

The proliferation of DVD-equipped HTiBs also raised average HTiB pricing in 2000 and 2001, but the average price of all HTiBs began to slide again during the first three quarters of this year, presumably in part because of falling DVD player prices, the statistics show (see table 1).

NPD's results are based on actual consumer transactions from a panel of more than 400 retail outlets, including appliance and electronics stores, office and computer superstores, mass merchants, mail-order companies and department stores. The data are then projected to represent the total market, excluding sales by pure Internet retailers. Data representing Wal-Mart and Warehouse Club sales is not projected.

Here are additional details of the NPD findings:

Sales with DVD: Last year was the first year in which a majority (53.1 percent) of HTiBs sold to consumers were DVD-equipped, NPD said. That was more than double 2000's 25.4 percent and up from 1999's 2.9 percent.

In the third quarter of this year, the percentage almost hit 70 percent, and for the first three quarters, it hit 67.3 percent. That compares to 43.8 percent in the first three quarters of 2001 and only 20 percent during the same period in 2000.

NPD doesn't differentiate between HTiBs with standalone DVD players and HTiBs with integrated DVD players, which often take the form of a DVD-receiver.

Sales growth: The percentage gain in unit sales of all HTiBs accelerated during the first two years during which DVD-equipped models were widely available, and the acceleration continued through the first three quarters of this year, NPD found. The 2000 gain was 41.2 percent growth, and 2001's growth was 61.6 percent. For the first three quarters of this year, the percentage gain was 57 percent compared to 46.6 percent in the first three quarters of 2001 and 36.7 percent in the first three quarters of 2000.

Pricing: With the influx of higher priced DVD-equipped models hitting the market, the average retail price of all HTiBs rose in 2000 and 2001, but average pricing began trending down again in the second and third quarters of this year, NPD found.

In 1999, the average retail was $368, rising to $441 in 2000 and $488 in 2001. For the first three quarters of this year, the average price fell to $456.

DVD-equipped systems, however, continued to maintain a premium over non-DVD models, although the premium shrank from their 1999-2001 levels. For the first three quarters of this year, DVD models sold for an average $517, while non-DVD models sold for $457.