Dawn of digital TV could prove bonanza for furniture
Larry Thomas, Business Editor -- Furniture Today, March 19, 2006
If you're in the business of manufacturing or retailing entertainment furniture, Feb. 17, 2009, arguably is the most important date on your calendar. This otherwise obscure Tuesday (the day after President's Day) is the day by which all U.S. television stations are to have completed the transition from analog to digital broadcasting. On that date, stations no longer will be permitted to send analog signals.
I don't pretend to understand the technical differences between analog and digital signals, and people in the furniture business shouldn't fret about it either. However, it's important to know that millions of TV sets in use today don't have digital tuners. And beginning Feb. 17, 2009, those sets will be useless, unless the owner subscribes to a cable or satellite TV service or gets TV signals through a component such as a DVD player or VCR.
Legislation setting the cutoff date includes money to subsidize the purchase of digital-to-analog converter boxes for old-fashioned sets, but I'm betting that many consumers will opt to junk their older TVs during the next couple of years and replace them with up-to-date models with digital tuners, even if they are cable or satellite subscribers.
And if they replace their TV, they also are going to need new furniture — if not, we should do everything in our power to make them want it.
At a bare minimum, the TV purchaser will need a simple television stand, but furniture manufacturers and retailers should prepare to capitalize on the opportunity to sell much more than that.
There almost certainly will be a need for some type of cabinetry to house components such as DVD players and stereos, and many people have sizable collections of DVDs., CDs and VHS tapes that need to be stored somewhere.
And since the TV purchaser isn't likely to be standing while watching his newest toy, some additional seating pieces might be in order as well.
Combined with the already-booming sales of flat-panel TVs using plasma, LCD or DLP technologies, the upcoming analog cutoff presents, in my opinion, an unprecedented opportunity for entertainment furniture sales.
Instead of fighting the consumer electronics industry and jealously deriding its continual output of innovative new gadgets, the furniture industry should embrace those efforts and work hard to develop products that compliment those gadgets.
The analog cutoff has been the subject of debate among electronics manufacturers, broadcasters and the government for several years, and the final agreement was part of the massive budget reconciliation bill signed into law last month by President Bush.
The transition to digital TV became part of the federal budget because the government expects to raise some $10 billion (yes, that's billion with a "b") by auctioning off a portion of the analog broadcast TV spectrum to wireless service providers. (Remember, the airwaves over which TV stations send their signals are part of the public domain.)
An estimated $990 million to $1.5 billion of that money will subsidize the purchase of converter boxes.
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