CEA: Sept. Sees Record DTV Sales
By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 11/10/2003
ARLINGTON, Va.— The Consumer Electronics Association reported sales of digital television (DTV) products rose 99 percent in September compared to the same period in 2002, again achieving record sales. Sales-to-dealer volume reached 530,656 units on $791 million in wholesale dollars.
CEA said the results marked "the highest one-month total for DTV product sales."
"These figures not only top the sales charts — they're off the charts," CEA president Gary Shapiro said in a prepared statement. "We've clearly reached the mass market point for DTV, particularly high-definition television (HDTV) products, which account for 87 percent of the sales total."
Shapiro said the performance corresponds with a recent CEA consumer survey that indicated 9 million households would be purchasing HDTV over the next 18 months.
The year-to-date DTV unit sales are now 2.5 million units, and cumulative unit sales since product introduction in the fourth quarter of 1998 are 7.3 million.
