Study: 70% of Americans still don't own an HDTV set
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, July 16, 2007
Arlington, Va. — Despite the massive hype behind high-definition televisions, some 70% of U.S. households still don't own one, according to a recent study by the Consumer Electronics Assn.
The study didn't specifically address furniture, but given the booming nature of HDTV sales, it should mean good news for furniture producers since the market for the newest generation of TVs hasn't come close to peaking.
The study, which was conducted in April, showed that 30% of U.S. households currently have at least one HDTV, and it projected the number would rise to 36% by the end of the year.
All told, the CEA projects that 16 million HDTVs will be sold this year, boosting the total number of HD sets sold in this country to 52.5 million.
Those numbers excite people like Mike Rush, president of RTA furniture producer Rush Inds.
"There are tremendous opportunities as consumers shift to the wide-screen format and the prices (of HDTVs) come down," he said. "People soon realize they can't use their old entertainment furniture with their new TV."
Interestingly, nearly one-third of the households with HDTV own more than one high-definition set, the CEA study found.
Also of interest to the furniture industry are the reasons consumers are buying HDTV. Surprisingly, the study revealed that only 44% of HDTV owners are actually receiving HD programming. Many of the others told researchers they bought the new set to improve their movie-watching and video game-playing experiences.
Nearly 40% of the HDTV households surveyed said they had connected surround-sound and video-game systems to their TV set, and even more said they had hooked up a DVD player.
The study found that two-thirds of HTDV owners who receive HD programming get it through a cable company. Another 27% use a satellite provider such as Dish Network or DirecTV, while 8% use over-the-air signals, 3% subscribe to a fiber-optic service and another 3% get HD programming from the Internet.
