Circuit City Liquidation Moving Along Quickly

The four firms conducting the going-out-of-business sale for all Circuit City stores across the country report that 25% of the inventory has sold in the first two weeks of the liquidation. All told there is $1.8 billion in merchandise to be sold, with $450 million gone already.

More discounting starts today, with all plasma TVs being sold for 25% off their original retail price and certain LCDs going for 20% off. Be careful though, because according to this TWICE article some customers have reported that prices were actually higher at Circuit over the last two weeks due to the discounting coming off of the original MSRP rather than sale prices.

BREAKING NEWS: DTV Delay Fails in U.S. House

Just in from Washington: A measure to delay the digital TV transition from Feb. 17 until June 12 this afternoon failed to pass the U.S. House of Representatives, coming up short of the two-thirds majority it needed for passage. The Senate had already unanimously passed the bill, which was supported by President Obama. More from TWICE.

Circuit City Going Out of Business Sale -- Not All That?

BusinessWeek has an interesting piece about the liquidation process surrounding the Circuit City bankruptcy. The short version is that many shoppers are expecting great deals but the reality is that 10-30% off retail is the extent of the discounting, with most major electronics falling at the 10% end of that spectrum. From a consumer perspective, the discounting will ramp up as the weeks pass but on the flip side, the good stuff will be the first to go. And obviously you won't be able to return anything. Caveat emptor, to be sure, but happy shopping if you go!

Cablevision Adds HD Premiums to Replace VOOM

When Cablevision announced last month that it was terminating its carriage relationship with the VOOM suite of 15 high-def channels, it said that it would immediately replace them with new HD nets so that its high-def channel count would stay the same (almost 70). This week the New York City cable company has done that, although customers have to subscribe to all the premium movie channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz) to get the newbies.

The new HD premium channels Cablevision customers can now receive are: Encore HD, Starz Kids & Family HD, Starz Edge HD, HBO Signature HD, HBO Family HD, HBO Comedy HD, HBO Zone HD, HBO2 HD, HBO Latino HD, Action Max HD, More Max HD, @Max HD, Outer Max HD, Showtime Too HD and Showtime Showcase HD.