Bye bye to the big box

By SEAN POULTER, CONSUMER AFFAIRS EDITOR
Updated:

 

The death knell was sounded last night for traditional television sets. The bulky cathode-ray tube devices are already being massively outsold by their flat-screen rivals.

And yesterday it emerged that Dixons and Currys will no longer stock the black boxes in smaller stores.

By next Christmas the televisions will have been phased out of their bigger outlets too. DSG International - which owns both chains - said that just two years ago traditional sets accounted for around 85% of sales.

Now, however, that figure has plunged to 5%, with most of these being portables for use in bedrooms and kitchens.

John Lewis has seen its sales of flat-screen televisions soar by 75% this year. Households are switching because the devices look better, take up less space and deliver digital channels without the need for a set-top box.

The new generation of liquid crystal or plasma televisions are also popular for their sharper pictures and sound.

HD-Ready televisions, which can cost as much as £2,000, are touted as being able to show high-definition pictures.

Nick Bubb, of retail analysts Evolution Securities, says DSG's move 'spells the end of the cathode-ray tube television'.

'Why would you want to buy one anyway when high-definition TV is available?' he said. Currently the only broadcasters offering HD services are Sky, with films and sport, and NTLTelewest, which has a more limited line-up. Both companies have had teething problems with the transmission technology and with the set-top boxes used to receive high-definition channels.

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The BBC and other terrestrial broadcasters are offering HD programming via Sky's satellite service and its rival cable networks. They are also working on beaming high-definition channels to Freeview boxes through household aerials.

This initiative has also hit a number of technical hurdles. High-definition sets produce better pictures by cramming many more pixels on the screen.

The fashion for slimline television sets saw Sony last year lay off 300 workers at factories in Wales that made cathode-ray tube TVs. Its move was matched by German manufacturer Loewe. Some five million big-box TV sets are now being scrapped every year in the UK.

Two million home computers with cathode-ray tube monitors are also being thrown on to the scrap heap annually.

Traditional television sets join a long list of redundant home entertainment products. Two years ago, Dixons stopped selling stand-alone video recorders because they had been eclipsed by DVD technology.

Other devices that have disappeared from many homes include the record player, the portable cassette recorder such as the Sony Walkman, the analogue camcorder and bulky mobile phones.

The hand-held CD player is also on its way out. It has been replaced by digital MP3 players, such as the Apple iPod, which can store hundreds of songs. The cathode ray tube was invented in 1897 and began to be used for television in the 1920s.

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