TV ratings may be a fraction of what they were two decades ago, but we still love buying televisions. Right now, there are 18.7 million functional TV sets in Australia.
Picture by Imbecillsallad
The latest figures from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) suggest that TV ownership is close to universal, with 99 per cent of households having at least one, and the average household having 2.2. We turn them over pretty quickly: 29 per cent of households surveyed had purchased a new TV in the previous year, and 70 per cent had done so within the previous three years. And we don’t wait for our old set to stop working: just 32 per cent of people bought a new set because their old one had stopped working.
As everyone who has suffered buyer’s regret knows, prices are falling rapidly. The average cost of a TV bought in the year to June 2011 was $1131, ACMA found. LCD TV sets fell by an average 32 per cent ($256), while plasmas declined slightly less with 14 per cent ($174).
It looks like we’re largely ready for when analogue TV gets switched off at the end of 2013: 80 per cent of the main TV sets are already digital-equipped. While going digital is one reason to upgrade your set, other factors were more important: 69 per cent of us were largely influenced by wanting a flatter or bigger screen.
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