The number of new televisions sold has surged as Australians prepare to switch to digital television signals from analog, according to research firm GfK.
The firm says that in the first quarter of 2009 about 500,000 television sets were sold – an increase of 5.7% from the same period one year ago. About 2.5 million televisions have been purchased in the last year.
The figure is far ahead of the number of digital set-top boxes sold, which has grown by 37.8%, but only resulted in 188,757 products sold.
The biggest sales occurred in South Australia and the Northern Territory, the firm says, with television sales up 10.2%.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
