The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) says its December sales figures for HDTV were 45 percent greater than December 2003 figures, and 10 percent over November, 2004 sales. The CEA says the figures reflect dealers' expectations to sell a lot of HDTV sets for Super Bowl viewing.
The usual caveats apply here. CEA figures apply to "DTV products," which do not necessarily need to be HDTV-capable, and the figures represent factory-to-retailer sales, not retailer-to-consumer sales. But certainly HDTV sales are up appreciably over previous years, and this cannot be denied. We have without question reached the point at which HDTV is available from a large variety of sources, and the public knows about it and wants it. We also know from many sources that consumer confusion over which displays have HDTV resolution and which do not, and what the differentiating factors are between the many options available to them, is a big hurdle for the consumer electronics industry.
There is, of course, no way to determine exactly how many people buy an HDTV set for the express purpose of watching the Super Bowl. We do know that sports is a major driver of consumer desire for HDTV and other large-screen sets, and the Super Bowl is the ritual sports television event of the year. It is also undeniable that flat screen displays are of great interest to consumers; sales of flat screen displays account for 38 percent of year-end DTV unit totals, according to CEA. But again, there are many flat panel displays that do not have HDTV resolution capabilities.
