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And related information about HDTV sales. This is good news in that it will drive E*, D* and channel providers toward more HD.

HDTV sales headed for a breakout year
Sales up 30 percent from 2005, with deep price cuts ahead for the holidays.

By Anya Sostek
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Thursday, November 23, 2006

Eric Carlisle is engaged to a woman whose birthday is within days of Valentine's Day. Rather than give her flowers, chocolates or jewelry, he surprised her this year with a 42-inch plasma high-definition television for their bedroom.

The gift was a hit, and two weeks ago, the 36-year-old invested in another HDTV, this one a 61-inch rear-projection model for their Coraopolis, Pa., living room.

"Our living room is so big that a small TV would just look like a family picture," said Carlisle, standing outside a Best Buy store. "This is the thing to do."

Across the country, consumers such as Carlisle are making 2006 a breakout year for high-definition televisions. Spurred by rapidly falling prices, this year's sales of HDTVs already have surpassed all of last year's by more than 30 percent, with the holiday season still to come.

"I was just looking at the numbers," said Matt Swanston, director of business analysis for the Consumer Electronics Association. "It's been incredible."

So far this year, wholesale prices on HDTVs have fallen 8 percent from last year, he said, averaging $1,400 compared with $1,526 a year ago. Retail prices on televisions between 40 and 45 inches have fallen even more, dropping between a quarter and a third in just the past six months, said Paul Gagnon, director of North American TV market research for Austin-based DisplaySearch.

TVs in that size range are now sold in both plasma and liquid crystal displays, causing manufacturers of each screen type to offer steep price cuts in the battle for dominance.

"There's a real rush to see who can take the majority of the market the quickest," Gagnon said.

The price on a 40-inch Sony LCD model, for example, has fallen 33 percent since it debuted in February, from about $3,000 to $2,000. The price of a Panasonic 42-inch plasma model, which has been slightly upgraded from year to year, dropped from $6,000 in the 2004 holiday season to $3,500 last December and to about $1,600 this year.

Of course, even with prices dropping, the biggest and highest-quality HDTVs don't come cheap. That 40-inch Samsung retails for about $2,300. The 61-inch rear projection model purchased by Carlisle, also a Samsung, retails for about $2,900.

Or there's the new model by Panasonic: a 103-inch behemoth that costs a cool $75,000.

Most Americans, though, are considerably more frugal. The top-selling HDTV size, said Gagnon, is 36 inches, and the cheapest fully equipped HDTVs can be had for about $550.

The popularity of HDTVs has also set up fierce competition between retailers, who have been prominently advertising the sets during televised sporting events and have featured HDTV price cuts among their "Black Friday" sales.

In Central Texas, Home Depot is advertising a 32-inch LCD HDTV for $478 through Sunday. Wal-Mart is selling the same size HDTV for $598 on its Web site. Office Depot is advertising a 42-inch plasma screen version for $799.

First introduced in 1998, HDTVs are now in about 30 percent of American homes, Swanston said.

Lower prices aren't the only lure. Viewers also are attracted by the variety of programs now available in high definition.

When they get into the stores, consumers are confronted with so many HDTV options that buying a computer seems simple by comparison. To help shoppers sort out types of screens, sizes and resolutions, Wal-Mart produced an instructional video that plays on a loop on in-store televisions.

And unlike the stereotype from years past, it isn't just the men who are tuning in.

"The flat panel has changed the battle of the sexes around television," said Brian Lucas, a spokesman for Best Buy Co. Inc., noting that some women now see them as wall art. "It used to be men trying to up-sell their wives, and now wives are up-selling their husbands."

Indeed, it was comments from his fiancee about wanting to hang a television on the wall that planted the seed for Carlisle to buy her an HDTV as a present.

Carlisle's microdisplay rear-projection model, however, cannot hang on the wall.

Well this should be really good news for Dish! Since they have more HD than anyone if folks are smart they will get on the Dish!