Sales of home theater-related products continue to surge

Shipments of video-related products reached 4.9 million units during the month of August, up 8% from last month, according to figures released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The year-to-date growth showed an increase of 13% over 1999 figures.

DVD-Video players, building on their phenomenal momentum, ended the month with stellar sales of 557,617 units. TV/VCR combinations demonstrated the largest increase in August, up 6% to 389,000 units. “ In the coming months, sales will abound as retailers gear up for the holiday buying season,” noted Todd Thibodeaux, CEA’s Vice President of Market Research.

So far this year, TV/VCR combinations are up 13 percent to three million units, while camcorders are up 19 percent with 3.4 million units shipped so far this year. Confirming that bigger is better, projection TV sales reached 771,000 units, an increase of 19 percent. DVD-Video players completed the year-to-date period reaching 3.8 million units.

All of this means ever-increasing releases of film libraries to DVD. Greater market penetration means more demand, and we’ll continue seeing more classic and esoteric movies making their way into our collections. And of course, as evidenced by the turnaround times of many recent hits from theatrical release to disc…some announced while they’re still in the top 10 grossing films in current release!…new films are a given.

It just keeps getting better all the time…

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