As Americans prepare for the nation’s unofficial holiday — Super Bowl XXXIX – consumer electronics retailers are ringing up huge sales of digital television (DTV) products. According to figuresreleased today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), December 2004 factory-to-dealer sales of DTV products hit 927,000 units, marking a 45 percent increase over December 2003. Total DTVsales for 2004 reached 7.2 million units, an increase of 75 percent compared to year-end 2003.
With November 2004 holiday sales of 844,000 units, the 10 percent increase in December sales demonstrates that retailers know that an upgrade to a high-definition television (HDTV) is a priority to consumers before this year’s Super Bowl,” said CEA Director of Market Research Sean Wargo
Since the first products hit the market in late 1998, 16.1 million DTVs have shipped bringing more than $25 billion in factory revenues. One of the biggest drivers of DTV is flat panel displays, which accounted for 38 percent of the year-end DTV unit totals and reached 2.7 million units shipped in 2004.
“Millions of Americans are upgrading to digital televisions as demonstrated by the 2004 year-end sales totals,” said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. “Our research consistently has shown that sports are a major driver of DTV sales. So it comes as no surprise that a hugely popular event such as the Super Bowl encourages fans of the Eagles and Patriots to join hundreds of thousands of other consumers in jumping head-first into digital television.”
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.
