DTV Unit Sales Top Four Million For 2003

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced record digital television (DTV) unit sales for 2003.

CEA also revealed that the single-month total for December 2003 nearly surpassed that of the entire year 2000.

CEA reported that factory-to-dealer DTV product sales totaled 4,102,365 units in 2003 and that December 2003 sales totaled 640,443 units – just 7,986 units shy of the entire year 2000 sales. Previously, the highest single-month unit sales total stood at 372,215 from June 2003. The December sales high represents a 58 percent increase over June 2003.

“2003 was a banner year for HDTV as Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell declared earlier this week,” said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. “In addition to clearing several policy hurdles – most notably the successful adoption of the cable plug-and-play agreement – we experienced a boom in product sales like never before in the analog to digital transition.

“HDTV sales, which account for 87 percent of total DTV sales, will only continue to grow in 2004 based on the new products and entrants into the marketplace we saw and heard about at the International CES. As ESPN President George Bodenheimer said during the show – there has never been a better time to be an HDTV fan.”

CEA Market Research projects that 5.8 million DTV units will be sold in 2004, 8.3 million in 2005, 11.9 million in 2006 and 16.2 million in 2007. 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.

Source: CEA