DTV Is Up, But Analog Drops

By Greg Tarr On Oct 22 2001 - 6:00am

Digital television dollar sales climbed 69.2 percent to $243.89 million in August, from $144.12 million a year ago, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

The numbers reflect sales of DTV monitors and fully integrated DTV sets. But sales of primarily analog products continued to slide for most categories in September, and only TV/VCR combo units and DVD video players managed to post positive growth numbers in the third quarter.

August numbers lifted year-to-date DTV factory dollar sales 101.5 percent to $1.34 billion, for 34 weeks.

Meanwhile, declining sales of analog televisions dragged total television sales down 4.5 percent in August. Analog set sales dropped 21 percent in the period to $508.92 million. Year-to-date unit sales to dealers of all televisions were off 6.6 percent in the period.

Sales of analog video products were not much better in September, which typically generates strong television sales from the start of football season.

September factory unit sales of analog direct view TVs were down 11.6 percent to 2.39 million, while the category's third-quarter numbers fell 18 percent to 5.03 million. The month's annualized selling rate based on traditional selling patterns came in at 20.8 million, while the average rate for the first nine months was 21.1 million, and the selling rate for the third quarter hit 18.8 million units.

Analog projection television sales continued to decline. September factory unit sales toppled 28.5 percent to 111,267, bringing the third-quarter numbers down 30 percent to 221,622 units.

Sales of VCR decks were also hit hard in September, with factory unit sales down 32.8 percent to 1.7 million, bringing third-quarter numbers down 36 percent to 3.78 million.

Camcorder factory unit sales were down 20.4 percent in September to 550,387, while sales for the third quarter were down 24.8 percent to 1.13 million.

Again, the lone star of video products was DVD. Factory unit sales for the category were up 36.5 percent in September to 1.76 million, bringing third-quarter factory unit levels up 31.1 percent from a year ago at 31.3 million pieces.