U.S. Consumers Choosing To Forgo TV Purchases As Football Season Rolls Around

As football season prepares to kick off, U.S. consumers are choosing to forgo TV purchases, with the number of Americans planning to buy new sets plunging to record low levels, according to new data from market research firm IHS iSuppli. The firm’s U.S. TV Consumer Preference Analysis survey was conducted during the second quarter of ’11, revealing that only 13% of U.S. consumers who had not purchased a TV during the past quarter are planning to buy a new set during the next 3-12 months, down from 32% in Q1. Eighty-three percent of respondents said they had no intention of buying a new TV set within the next 12 months. That figure compares to 66% of respondents who said the same during Q1, marking the highest negative level of response to the question since IHS iSuppli first posed it to the public in ’10. Among those respondents who said they plan on buying TVs, 86% would be purchasing LCD TVs. In terms of size, a slight increase was detected in buyers going for 50-inch-and-larger sets (IHS iSuppli).