DTV Oct. Sales Set Monthly Record

[Gregg Lengling]

TWICE
11/18/2002 10:51:00 AM
   Arlington, Va. - Digital Television (DTV) products continued to set factory-to-dealer sales records in October with unit sales totaling 292,856 on dollar sales of $471,669,338, according to Consumer Electronics Association research.

The CEA said October unit sales were up 12 percent over the previous record month of September with factory dollar volume increasing 7 percent.

Unit sales for October were up 56 percent over October 2001, while dollar sales climbed 38 percent over the 2001 period, the CEA said.

"The DTV growth rate is phenomenal," said CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro. "Year-to-date DTV sales now total 1,878,397 units on dollar sales of more than $3.1 billion. That represents a 78 percent unit increase over the same period last year and a 64 percent increase in dollar sales."

DTV products are defined by CEA 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.

CEA projects that 2.7 million DTV products - including integrated sets and displays - will be sold in 2002, 4 million in 2003, 5.4 million in 2004, 8 million in 2005 and 10.5 million in 2006