Philips' Dunn sees 1998 European digital TV set-top sales 2.5 mln units vs 1.5
06/11/98
AFX News
(c) 1998 by AFP-Extel News Ltd
THE HAGUE (AFX) - Royal Philips Electronics NV expects the European market for digital television set-top boxes to rise to 2.5 mln units this year, from 1.5 mln in 1997, board member and consumer electronics chief executive officer Doug Dunn said.
Dunn said Philips expects 3 mln digital television sets to be sold in Europe by the year 2000, and one third of these will be "integrated digital TV sets".
"Our market leadership in digital set-top boxes means we are uniquely positioned to play a significant role in the development of digital TV", he said at a press event.
"For example, the European market for digital set-top boxes totalled 1.5 mln units in 1997, with Philips supplying more than half of these, and we expect the market to increase this year to 2.5 mln," he said.
Dunn also said Philips is to supply receivers for terrestial digital pay television -- to decode digital channels for analogue sets -- for British Digital Broadcasting's launch later this year.
Dunn said Philips expects by the year 2006 all analogue sets in U.S. will have been replaced by digital sets or fitted with a digital set-top box.
Dunn said Philips consumer electronics operations are profitable "in key areas", without giving further details.
"We're still booking healthy annual sales growth of 10-12 pct and many new territories like Eastern Europe and China are opening up and showing tremendous growth, with Philips sales in Eastern Europe growing at 30 pct a year", he said.
DVD video products will be launched in Europe this year via 4,000 large retail chains and audio-video stores, with some 130 DVD titles currently available, which will grow to 250 by year-end.
The total DVD market in Europe is seen close to 300,000 players in this year, he said.
Meanwhile, Philips has already shipped 500,000 players to U.S. to date and 3.5 mln software units, with 1,000 titles available in the U.S, he added.
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