• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 7, 2005

HDTV Choice Seats for Super Bowl

According to figures 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 DTV sales 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.

And CEA President, Gary Shapiro, said "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."

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.

DTV Sales in the US (millions of units)

• 2004 6.97
• 2005 10.77
• 2006 16.77
• 2007 23.25
• 2008 27.05

Source: Consumer Electronics Association, December 2004

In August, 2004, eMarketer estimated that the number of digital TV households in the US would total 70.3 million by 2007, up from 44.2 million in 2003. In addition, the number of HDTV households in the US will rise from 1.1 million in 2003 to 21.3 million by 2007.

Advanced DTV Households in the US (millions)

	HDTV	DVR	VOD	Digital TV
2004	2.6	5.9	17.6	49.0
2005	5.5	10.4	22.9	55.5
2006	12.4	16.7	26.6	62.5
2007	21.3	25.3	29.8	70.3

Source: eMarketer, August 2004