Digital Television Sales Flourish During First Half of 2003

[Gregg Lengling]

Arlington, Virginia 7/30/2003

Expanding on the momentum generated by outstanding product sales during the first quarter, manufacturer-to-dealer sales of digital television (DTV) products reached new heights during the second quarter of 2003 with year-to-date unit sales totaling 1,438,713 and dollar revenues of more than $2.1 billion, according to figures released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).
The 2003 second quarter sales surpassed the 2002 second quarter total by 69 percent in units and 43 percent in dollars. During June, factory-to-dealer sales of DTV products totaled 365,210 units with dollar revenues of some $524.1 million. These figures represent an increase of 110 percent and 81 percent, respectively, compared to June 2002. 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.

"The first and second quarter sales numbers demonstrate what we predicted at the 2003 International CES - that 2003 will be the year of HDTV," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA. "Given the variety of innovative DTV sets and displays at consumer-friendly price points that continue to enter the marketplace, CEA is projecting sales of digital television products should exceed analog sales this year by $400 million in factory-to-dealer revenues."

CEA also reported that second quarter 2003 sales of stand-alone set-top box units totaled 49,928 units and some $22.3 million in revenue, which represents a 161 percent unit increase and 171 percent revenue increase compared to the second quarter of 2002. The cumulative DTV set-top box sales figure - sales from 1999 through June 2003 - has reached 397,512 units. That brings ATSC-receiving products, including both integrated sets and stand-alone set-top boxes, to 701,512 units.

"Provided we continue to see more HD programming and more broadcast stations on the air transmitting a full-power digital signal, we will continue to see that ATSC receiving units figure rise. But we also need to focus attention on the more than 70 million U.S. households that rely on cable for their TV signal. Swift Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adoption of the historic cable plug-and-play agreement is critical to introducing digital cable ready televisions into the marketplace and seeing the analog to DTV transition to completion."

From product introduction to date, DTV product sales total 6,216,831 units with a consumer dollar investment of some $10.8 billion. CEA has announced upwardly revised projections for DTV unit sales, which now show that 4.3 million units will be sold in 2003, 5.8 million in 2004, 8.3 million in 2005, 11.9 million in 2006 and 16.2 million in 2007.

Data cited in this release is available for purchase through CEA's Market Activity Reports and Analysis (MARA) program. With more than 500 reports published annually, the MARA program is recognized as the "authoritative source" for data on the consumer electronics industry. For a list of available reports and purchasing information, visit //www.eBrain.org/mara or send an e-mail request to info@ebrain.com.