Ross Rubin:The Big Game's Big Picture

ByABC News
March 14, 2007, 2:11 PM

March 15, 2007 — -- The PC may be growing as a repository for digital video. But make no mistake, we Americans like to watch burly men fight over grass on television.

Across the land and even the world, spectators gather to the best possible window for watching their gridiron gladiators.

As a result, retailers take shrewd advantage of the NFL's marketing assistance.

TV sales for the week of the Super Bowl were up across the board from the old technologies of tube-based direct view TVs to large and sleek flat-panel televisions, according to the NPD Group's weekly point-of-sale (POS) data.

Furthermore, in a dramatic contrast to Black Friday and the December holiday sales season, retailers didn't have to drop prices significantly on leading television types.

Smaller screens saw more reductions, but these were still minimal on average.

The average price of LCD TVs during the week of the Super Bowl was only $21 less than it was the previous week, and for direct view tube televisions, the difference was only $20. Yet direct view TV sales saw the biggest gains during the week of the Super Bowl, growing over 60 percent in units from the previous week while maintaining healthy revenue growth.

Indeed, plasma and projection TVs, which tend to be the largest screens sold, cost slightly more during the week of the Super Bowl than they did the previous week. Plasma TVs, popular in 42" and 50" sizes, sold for an average of $27 more during the week of the Super Bowl than the previous week, and projection TVs sold for $32 more.

The average price of a projection TV, though, was under $1,500, while it was more than $1,500 during most of January.

In 2008, two teams will again vie for the football championship in Glendale, Ariz. But across the country, four teams of televisions will compete throughout the year for sales leadership. What do the scouting reports look like?

Direct View -- This grizzled veteran grew up in an era where size was about all that mattered, and it will continue to take its lumps from the younger and more athletic LCD TVs that eroded its market this past holiday season.

With 32" LCD TVs available for less than $500 in some places, direct view tube televisions are still favored only among the most die-hard budget fans looking at TVs below 32". Such TVs grew 72 percent during the week of the Super Bowl -- but it won't be long before LCD pricing catches up there.