September DTV Sales Top The Charts

[Gregg Lengling]

Unit Sales 99 Percent Higher Than Last Year

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Arlington, Virginia 10/28/2003

Marking the highest one-month total for digital television (DTV) product sales, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) today issued factory-to-dealer sales figures for September totaling 530,656 units and $791,487,344.
"These figures not only top the sales charts - they're off the charts," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "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.

"If you look at CEA's sales figures since product introduction in the fourth quarter of 1998, you see that we've had steadily stronger sales months throughout the DTV transition. But September 2003 marks a new realm in terms of DTV adoption and momentum. The consumer survey we released last month at our Industry Forum revealed that nine million households would be purchasing HDTV over the next 18 months. That fact already is playing out in the marketplace. The new digital cable ready (DCR) HDTVs that will begin appearing on store shelves in the near future will compound this sales growth."

The year-to-date unit sales total now has reached 2.5 million units, which brings the cumulative unit total for sales since product introduction in the fourth quarter of 1998 to 7.3 million. Dollar sales for 2003 are $4 billion, which elevates the total consumer investment in DTV products to $12.7 billion.

CEA Market Research projects that 4.3 million DTV 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. DTV products are defined 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 transmissions.

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.