DTV Sales Soar

While it took almost four years before the one millionth DTV set was sold, it only took the first two months of 2004 to sell more than two-thirds that amount, based on sales figures from CEA.

Manufacturer-to-dealer sales of DTV products in January and February totaled 853,443 units, representing dollar sales of more than $1.3 billion, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The sales for the first two months represent a 124 percent unit increase and 100 percent increase in dollar sales over the same period in 2003.

"Consumer interest and demand have skyrocketed to the point that we've already sold nearly 1 million DTV units in just the first two months of the year," said CEA Director of Industry Analyst Sean Wargo.

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 ASTC terrestrial digital transmissions.