TV Ratings

Masterfile

These are tough times for TV manufacturers but good times if you’re looking for a deal on a TV. Nielsen in May estimated that the percentage of U.S. homes that have a TV dropped to 96.7 percent from 98.9 percent a year earlier, which is the first slip since 1992. And after the industry set a sales record in 2009, high-definition-TV (HDTV) sales eased by 1 percent in 2010 even amid the well-hyped wave of pricey 3-D-capable TVs entering the marketplace, according to Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

The reason for this decline is that more ways to watch TV programs are available than ever before. With ever-faster Internet connectivity, consumers easily can watch their favorite shows on their smartphone or their desktop, notebook or tablet computer. In fact, Nielsen recently reported that viewership of TV programming actually increased by an average of 22 minutes per month in the first quarter of 2011, compared with the first quarter of 2010. The online influence, no doubt.

Why do you care? If you plan to purchase a new TV, you should know that prices are falling. The average price of all sizes of LCD TVs that don’t have 3-D capability dropped to $511 in 2011 from $594 in 2010, according to market researcher The NPD Group. The drop is even more dramatic for plasma models: The average non-3-D model costs $603 this year, compared with $878 in 2010.

But that’s not all. If you buy a TV today, thanks to advances in technology, that TV will provide a noticeably better image. Get the picture?

3-D OR NOT 3-D? Companies have pinned big hopes on 3-D technology as a way to revitalize TV sales. But higher prices for 3-D TVs, along with the need to wear special glasses and the limited amount of compatible content, thus far have prevented 3-D TVs from becoming a living-room blockbuster. Just 8 percent of consumers who have heard of 3-D TV are interested in buying one, according to a study that was conducted by Leichtman Research Group, which studies the entertainment industry.

Despite the lukewarm reception, 3-D TV isn’t going away. CEA estimates that U.S. shipments of 3-D TVs will increase by 67 percent in 2011. And by 2015, 52 percent of all flat-panel TVs that are shipped worldwide will be 3-D-enabled, according to IHS, which studies the consumer-electronics industry. In other words, most TVs will be 3-D regardless of whether you want it.

That doesn’t mean that if you buy such a TV you’ll be stuck wearing 3-D glasses every time that you watch “Glee.” Manufacturers are incorporating 3-D technology as a mode. These TVs will show a 3-D picture only if the programming is in 3-D and will switch automatically to a conventional picture if the programming is conventional.

With increased economies of scale coming into play, the price difference has diminished quickly between TVs that have a 3-D mode and TVs that don’t. Last year, a 40-inch 3-D TV cost about $900 more than an equivalent-size conventional TV, but this year, a TV of the same size that has a 3-D mode costs only $150 to $200 more, Riddhi Patel of IHS says. Nevertheless, you should keep in mind that there isn’t much 3-D programming available.

“Certainly, until we have widespread, affordable and almost certainly glasses-free 3-D TVs, we won’t see prime-time television in 3-D,” says Ross Rubin, who is a technology analyst with NPD. “Most of the focus for the next 5 years will continue to be on movies and sports.”

In the meantime, the amount of 3-D programming continues to increase. When 3-D TVs were introduced widely in 2009, only a handful of 3-D DVDs were on the market and almost no live 3-D programming was available. Since then, an increasing number of 3-D movies have been released and a few fledgling 3-D channels have been switched on. For example, ESPN 3D shows select programming in 3-D, and DirecTV has two 3-D channels (n3D and 3net).