The U.S. television set market.

The U.S. television set market is projected to reach the $27 billion mark by 2010, up from $25 billion in 2006. The bulk of this growth will come from the flat-panel television set segment, which is projected to grow 65 percent from 2006-2010. The transition to digital television continues to be

a major underpinning of the television set market in the United States. Additionally, consumers are increasingly looking to use their television sets for a myriad of non-traditional activities including accessing the Internet, checking e-mail, and watching content accessed from hardware devices like digital video recorders.

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There are few things as ubiquitous as television sets in the United States. Today, there are more than 278 million in use--2.4 television sets for each of the more than 114 million households in the United States. Ninety-eight percent of American households own at least one television set--likely the highest penetration rate for any single product or good in the world. In 2006, total television set sales to U.S. consumers surpassed $25 billion in wholesale dollars. (1) In the upcoming five years, trends in flat-panel sets and a market transition to digital television are just two of the developments underpinning the U.S. television set market.

Consumer Electronics Industry Overview

In 2006, the U.S. consumer electronics industry shipped $148 billion in total goods to consumers--up over 53 percent since reaching $97 billion in 2000. In 2007, the industry is expected to grow another eight percent to $160 billion in total shipments. While a complete review of broader economic trends is beyond the scope of this work, household net worth has increased over 34 percent since 2000. Increases in household net worth, significant innovation, and continuously declining technology prices at the retail level have created a strong market for television sets. As of 2006, television sets represented 17 percent of total annual industry sales.

Television Technologies, Tuners, Screen Size, and Pricing

Today, there are three chief types of television sets--front projection, rear projection, and direct-view--with a myriad of additional technologies falling under these three broad categories. Front projection is similar to a movie theater display, where the projector is typically hung from the ceiling or placed on a table and the picture is projected directly onto a screen or a wall. This is the smallest segment of the television set market--with just over one million units shipped in 2006 at just under $3 billion.