May Continues Soft Sales For Analog Video
By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 6/11/2001
Arlington, Va. — May video sales-to-dealer figures continued to reflect the struggling economy and the transition to digital television broadcasting, decreases reported in all categories except camcorders and DVD players, according to just-released Consumer Electronics Association numbers.
Analog direct-view color turned in the second weakest growth performance of the year in May, with sales of 1.2 million units, down 34.8 percent from the same period last year. The result made for the fifth consecutive month of unit sales declines, with the category now showing year-to-date sales of 7.74 million units, down 6.5 percent the last year at this time.
Based on traditional selling patterns, the sales rate for the May period slipped to 19.8 million, dragging the annualized selling rate of direct-view color televisions down to 22.7 million.
Sales of TV/VCRs weren't much better, as unit sales to dealers fell 29.1 percent to 289,106 for the month.
Analog projection TV should a decline for the eleventh straight month with May sales of 51,162 units, down 17.2 percent from a year ago. The five-month total is now 363,874, down 19.3 percent from a year ago.
VCR sales continued to get clobbered with May's performance of 1.2 million units, off 34.8 percent from May 2000. The five-month tally now stands at 5.7 million units, down 30.6 percent from a year ago.
Camcorders were one of the bright spots of the month, with unit sales reaching 454,336 units, up 5.9 percent from a year ago. The full year total now stands at 2.06 million up 2.3 percent from a year ago.
By far, the shining sales of the video segment was the DVD category, as unit sales reached 523,225 pieces, up 15.4 percent from last year. However, the growth percentage was the weakest of the year for the category. Full year sales now stand at 3.48 million unit sales to dealers, up a healthy 70.6 percent from a year ago.
