Lower prices make TVs season's hot seller
Black Friday electronics sales, like this one at a Best Buy in San Diego, drew crowds. Some people are replacing old TV models, experts say, others opt for video content on computers or smartphones. (Nov. 25, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
Television sets -- with the help of slashed prices -- are among this holiday season's most popular items, even as forecasters expect the number of households with a TV will decline in 2012.
Despite the seeming contradiction, there are good reasons for both trends, analysts said.
"What people are doing now is replacing old televisions with newer ones," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for the Port Washington-based NPD Group. "Just because people are buying new televisions doesn't mean more TVs in people's homes . . . The number of TVs will go down as they use alternative methods to get their video content."
In the future more and more people will opt for watching video content on devices like tablets or smartphones, he said. The Nielsen Company estimates the decline in the percentage of homes with a TV will drop from about 99 percent in 2011 to about 97 percent next year.
In addition to consumers using different methods of viewing video content, Nielsen attributes the decline to several other factors, including the new digital format for TV transmission and the cost of buying a TV during a period of "belt-tightening."
TV penetration first dipped after the switch from analog to digital broadcasting during the summer of 2009, Nielsen said in May when preliminary estimates were released.
"Some consumers are clearly being driven by the economy to make choices on the media devices they purchase," Pat McDonough, senior vice president of Insights and Analysis at The Nielsen Company said at the time. "Others are expanding their equipment to add more audio/visual devices to their home. Still others may be deferring a TV purchase or replacing their TV with a computer."
Retailers typically use promotions on consumer electronic products, especially TVs, to drive holiday shopping traffic. This year the deals may have enticed many who were waiting to buy TVs, analysts said. According to Dealnews.com, a deal aggregator site, there were 77 major deals on TVs during the Black Friday weekend.
Almost 6 percent of Black Friday shoppers bought a new TV, a 36 percent increase from 2010, according to The NPD Group.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said TVs are among the top gifts people are putting on layaway this holiday season. For Target Corp. the top seller on Black Friday weekend was a half-off Westinghouse 46-inch LCD HDTV for $298.
"When you give stuff away," Baker said, "people are going to buy it."
With AP
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'Success is zero deaths on the roadway' Newsday reporters spent this year examining the risks on Long Island's roads, where traffic crashes over a decade killed more than 2,100 people and seriously injured more than 16,000. This documentary is a result of that newsroom-wide effort.
