Factory to dealer DTV product sales figures totaled $791 million in September with unit sales totaling 530,656. The unit sales are 99 percent higher than the same month last year and set a record for one month unit sales, according to the Consumer Electronics Association
"These figures not only top the charts -- they're off the charts," said CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro who noted that HDTV equipment accounted for 87 percent of the sales total. "The new digital cable ready (DCR) HDTVs that will begin appearing on store shelves in the near future will compound this sales growth," he said.
Year-to-date unit sales total reached 2.5 million units, bringing the cumulative unit total for sales since its introduction in the fourth quarter of 1998 to 7.3 million. Dollar sales for 2003 are $4 billion, bringing the total consumer investment in DTV equipment to $12.7 billion. CEA Market Research projects that 4.3 million DTV units will be sold in 2003, 8.3 million will be sold by 2005 and 16.2 million by 2007.
CEA defines DTV units 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.
