Audio Video News

In May, the consumer electronics industry celebrated a milestone: over one million DTV units sold in 2003 by manufacturers to dealers. On June 23, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) reported the year-to-date total as 1,073,503, a 59% increase compared to the same period in 2002. Year-to-date dollar revenues were more than $1.6 billion—an increase of 34%, the trade group reported. The disparity between unit sales and dollar value was attributed to declining prices for new DTV products.

The 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 transmissions.

DTV shipments in May totaled 239,895 units, with dollar revenues of $329.4 million, increases of 62% and 35%, respectively, over May 2002. A total of 5,851,621 units have been shipped from factories to dealers since the introduction of the technology, representing a retail value of approximately $10.3 billion.

"These 2003 figures represent outstanding progress," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "In 2002—the most successful year for both DTV unit and dollar sales since their market debut—factory-to-dealer sales of DTV products did not breach the one million-unit mark until July. Now, we've bested that by two months and are confident sales figures will reach and perhaps surpass CEA's projected four million units sold by year-end."

Implementation of a "plug-and-play" agreement between the cable television industry and television manufacturers, signed last December, should accelerate the market for DTV, Shapiro added. The CEA projects 4 million DTV units will be sold in 2003, 5.4 million in 2004, 8 million in 2005 and 10.5 million in 2006.