FALLING prices and rising demand boosted sales revenue of television sets by more than 20 percent in the first three quarters, according to a report.

About 27.04 million TV sets of all brands, both foreign and domestic, were sold from January to September, giving a 25.6-percent lift year-on-year to sales revenue of 92.2 billion yuan (US$13.49 billion), according to data released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the China Video Industry Association.

Sales of liquid crystal display TVs jumped 54.2 percent to hit 7.8 million units, equivalent to the total for all of 2007. Sales revenue hit 57.7 billion yuan, a surge of 46.9 percent from the same period last year, according to data provided by Oliver Wyman, a New York-based consulting firm.

Falling prices and surging demand from China's vast rural areas and the less-developed small cities were reasons behind the sales boom, said Yu Liangxing of the CVIA research department.

The prices of LCD TVs declined 15.6 percent year on year on higher output during the first nine months. Prices of TVs with LCD larger than 40 inches fell more than 20 percent on average, according to the Oliver Wyman data.

TV demand was likely to peak in 2008 as most Chinese families were expected to buy a new set to replace their old one, based on the calculation of the average TV life expectancy and the purchase curve in the last 10 years, said Yu, adding that LCD TVs have become their first choice.

China now has 320 million households owning more than 340 million TV sets, according to official data.

Plasma TV sales jumped 250.2 percent to 1.18 million units, worth 8.7 billion yuan which was a rise of 108.6 percent in the first three quarters, according to Oliver Wyman figures.

Sales of cathode ray tube TVs fell 5 percent in the third quarter to 5.63 million, worth 8 billion yuan which was 4 percent less year on year.