HOME THEATER BECOMES MORE AFFORABLE FOR FAMILIES
Compact Videotape Sales Up Nine Percent
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, March 9, 1998. Home theaters are becoming even more affordable for families, according to new data from the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA). While dollar sales of home theater products * in 1997 reached $8.2 billion - a slight drop from the $8.3 billion generated in the previous year, many of the essential components of home theater systems sold more units than ever before. Overall unit sales of home theater products rose five percent.
Showing an impressive 14 percent increase, the number of home theater households continued to expand from 13 million in 1996 to 14.8 million in 1997. CEMA predicts another 1.8 million households will buy a home theater system in 1998. As home theater families begin to replace their analog components with new digital video products, CEMA estimates that the home theater market should reach more than $11 billion in sales by the year 2000.
While dollar sales of home theater video fell three percent in 1997, unit sales of video products rose seven percent. Stereo VCR prices fell dramatically in response to the powerful new presence of the DVD player, introduced in March of 1997. Consequently, unit sales of stereo VCRs shot up 19 percent. Even after the price erosion, VCR dollar sales still managed to grow two percent to $1.4 billion. Prices also dropped for projection TVs which fell four percent in dollar sales, but increased three percent in unit sales in 1997.
Sales of audio-related home theater products topped $1 billion, growing seven percent for 1997 solely on the strength of home-theater-in-a-box shipments which generated $282 million in revenues. |
