CEA: October Digital TV Sales Increased 136%
Staff -- TWICE, 12/20/2004
ARLINGTON, VA. — October factory-to-dealer sales of digital television (DTV) products totaled 968,394 units, good for $1.3 billion in wholesale revenue, according to figures released by the CEA.
The association said October unit sales were up 136 percent over the same month in 2003, while the wholesale dollar volume rose 102 percent over the same period.
“We expected DTV sales to be strong in the final months of the year, but to see the numbers in print is an exhilarating affirmation of DTV's success,” said Sean Wargo, CEA's industry analysis director. “Year-to-date DTV sales total 5.4 million units and are on track to meet CEA's initial forecast of 6.9 million units.”
CEA reported that cumulative DTV unit sales now total 14,306,452 and dollar sales are just below $23 billion. CEA defines DTV products as integrated sets and monitors displaying active vertical scanning lines of at least 480p and, in the case of integrated sets, receiving and decoding ATSC terrestrial digital broadcasts.
“Further fueling the analog-to-digital television (DTV) transition is the broad consumer appeal of flat panel displays,” Wargo added. “Manufacturers are selling an impressive number of LCD products. In fact, we've already exceeded our annual sales forecast for the LCD category. We projected 1.35 million LCD units would be sold this year and now we've surpassed 1.4 million. In October alone we sold 290,000 units.”
CEA Market Research projects the following: 7 million DTV units will be sold in 2004, 10.8 million in 2005, 16.8 million in 2006, 23.3 million in 2007, and 27.1 million in 2008.
