"The industry has much to be thankful for and to celebrate this holiday season. More than 4.4 million DTV products have been sold during the first nine months of this year"
Gary Shapiro, CEA President and CEO

Retailers are preparing for the biggest digital television (DTV) holiday sales season yet, according to the latest figures from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). Factory-to-dealer DTV product sales totaled 741,598 units in September, which represents a 40 percent increase compared to the same period in 2003. Cumulative 2004 numbers are up 71 percent versus the first 9 months of last year.

"The industry has much to be thankful for and to celebrate this holiday season," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "More than 4.4 million DTV products have been sold during the first nine months of this year and CEA expects to see more groundbreaking sales as 2004 comes to a close. Some 13.3 million DTV units have shipped into the U.S. marketplace since product introduction in 1998. This translates to more than $20 billion invested in DTV."

CEA Market Research projects that 6.97 million DTV units will be sold in 2004, 10.77 million in 2005, 16.77 million in 2006, 23.25 million in 2007 and 27.05 in 2008. 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 Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) terrestrial digital broadcasts.