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Patriot Ledger, The; Quincy, Mass.

By Steve Adams; STEVE ADAMS

The Patriot Ledger

CANTON

Bigger screens. Slimmer profiles. Lower prices. A bright outlook for the holiday season is coming into sharp focus for electronics retailers. Chains are optimistic that consumers will find digital televisions hard to resist his year, and an industry group and retail executives predict consumer electronics sales will rise sharply.

As it prepares for the holiday rush, Canton's Tweeter Home Entertainment Group has upped its orders of flat-panel TVs by 60 percent and projection TVs by 20 percent, compared with 2004, said Frank Roshinski, vice president of Tweeter's video division.

"Flat-panel's sexy," Roshinski said. "It's the George Jetson stuff that everybody wanted when they were a kid."

Tweeter, a 160-store chain, credited digital TV sales with a recent rebound in its late-summer performance, as sales rose 9 percent in the three months that ended Sept. 30. Executives attributed a big part of the increase to digital TVs, for which sales rose 54 percent. The category includes plasma, LCD and high- definition projection screens.

Average prices of plasma TVs have dropped by about $1,500 in the past year, while LCD and projection TVs cost about $500 less than in 2004, Roshinski said.

Tweeter's top-selling models are a Panasonic 42-inch plasma TV that sells for $2,999 and a Sony 50-inch projection TV for $2,499.

The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that holiday spending on electronic gadgets - including MP3 players, DVD players, digital cameras and laptop computers - will rise by 9 percent over last year.

High-definition TVs appeal to consumers with a broad range of incomes, according to a February report by Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge. While households earning more than $100,000 a year make up about 22 percent of high-definition set owners, households earning less than $25,000 a year make up 19 percent. And households making $26,000 to $50,000 say they're most likely to buy a high- definition set in the future.

Executives hope high gas prices will encourage consumers to upgrade their in-home entertainment systems - instead of curbing their spending.

"You're seeing the perfect storm where everything is coming together for the best of the 25 seasons I've been in this business," said John Kelly, a senior vice president at the Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City chain. The three-month period that includes the holidays accounts for more than 30 percent of electronics retailers' revenues, according to analysts and industry figures.

"The holidays up the ante in this business," said Mike Linton, chief marketing officer at the Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy chain.

As broadcast and cable networks steadily add to their high- definition content, viewers have more incentives to upgrade to digital sets.

And federal law requiring broadcasters to switch from analog to digital broadcasts eventually is also giving consumers another reason to consider upgrading their TVs. The measure is designed to free radio spectrum for wireless broadband services serving rural areas.

A coalition of high-tech companies has urged Congress to set a Jan. 1, 2009, deadline for broadcasters to switch to all-digital broadcasts. Owners of analog TVs would then need to buy a digital set or a converter to receive digital broadcasts.

"Whether it's in the front or the back of their mind, (consumers) have to get a new TV in the next few years," Roshinski said.

Material from Patriot Ledger news services was included in this report.