CEA: 1 in 4 TVs Purchased This Year Will Be Digital

[Gregg Lengling]

More than 11 million DTV units have been sold over the past six years, with the majority of the sales made in the last two years, according to data released from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) last week.


"With high definition (HDTV) products constituting the vast majority of total sales, these figures show how quickly consumers are responding to the continued increase in the amount of quality HDTV programming, such as the Summer Olympics, said Sean Wargo, senior industry analyst for CEA. "In fact, one out of four televisions purchased this year will be an HDTV."


The CEA News Release said that DTV sales during the first half of 2004 are up 80 percent compared to 1.5 million units sold during the first half of 2003. Note that the CEA includes monitors capable of displaying active vertical scanning lines of at least 480p as a DTV product. While monitors don't have to include a tuner, integrated sets have to be able to receive and decode ATSC terrestrial DTV broadcasts to be counted as a DTV product.


CEA did not break out how many of the DTV products sold in the first half of 2004 included an ATSC tuner. More detailed data can be purchased through CEA's Market Activity Reports and Analysis Program.