KEY POINTS:
The days of a bulky TV set dominating the living room could be at an end as international retailers pull traditional style sets from the shelves in favour of sleek - but more expensive - flat, plasma and LCD screens.
Technological advances mean the price and quality of
flat screen TVs are constantly improving - making them more accessible to everyday consumers.
Where once big TVs dominated living rooms, new screens grace walls like technological art, prompting big retailers such as DSG International, which owns Dixons and Currys - one of the largest British electrical retailers - to pull the bulky sets off the shelf. This Christmas may be the last opportunity to buy one.
In the United Kingdom 80 to 90 per cent of all TVs sold in 2004 were traditional bulky models. Last year that had fallen to just 15 to 20 per cent. This year it is expected to be 5 per cent.
In New Zealand, the old style TV is still on sale but sales are falling.
Tim Gunn, product manager for electronics retail chain Hill & Stewart, said there was still a market in New Zealand for conventional television sets although "the demand is getting smaller and smaller".
"Manufacturers are unable to set the price any lower than it is. The big companies are pouring their money into the research and development of flat panel televisions rather than the cathode ray tubes style television."
For retailers, Gunn said, the bigger the screen, the better the margin. Installation and warehousing is cheaper, as is the cost of importing and freighting the sleeker screens.
A spokesperson for The Warehouse said the company had noticed a decline in the sales of tubular television sets but non-LCD and plasma televisions were still sold throughout the country. "People still want them for the kids' bedroom or at the family bach, but yes, when they are replacing the lounge set it is usually with a LCD or plasma. People want to be ready for when digital television arrives," the spokesperson said.
Electrical specialists said the newer style TVs were clearer and brighter and offered better definition. People were able to use the screens as an additional computer monitor to watch movies, which was also attractive to buyers.
At Dick Smith Electronics last week, a DSE branded 42-inch LCD TV was selling for $2998. The same size plasma was priced at $1998. A standard 29-inch TV retailed for $358.
One day it may join other relics of the past at Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology. There, one of the country's first television sets is stored. Custom built in 1959 by Dominion Radio and Electric Corporation, the 24-inch black and white set has become a piece of broadcasting history.