Estimation question

How many potential TV buyers are there in NY? Walk us through your thought process.

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What this question tests

Bottom up estimation using population and demographic breakdowns for a defined geography.

Clarify scope: New York City proper, roughly 8.5 million people, versus greater metro area; pick city proper and state that choice.
Convert population to households, assuming an average household size of about 2.5, giving roughly 3.4 million households.
Assume most households already own at least one TV, so potential buyers are households replacing or adding a TV in a given year, say 15 percent of households annually.
Calculate: 3.4 million households times 15 percent equals roughly 510,000 potential TV buyers per year.
Sanity check against typical electronics replacement cycles of 5 to 7 years, which roughly matches a 15 to 20 percent annual replacement rate.
Present the final estimate as a range, roughly 450,000 to 550,000 potential buyers annually.

Clarifies city versus metro scope explicitly before calculating, avoiding a common ambiguity trap.
Uses a defensible household size assumption and shows the conversion from population to households.
Anchors the annual buyer estimate to a replacement cycle assumption, a realistic modeling technique.
Cross checks the resulting percentage against the assumed replacement cycle for consistency.

Not clarifying city versus metro area, which changes the population base significantly.
Skipping the household conversion step and estimating buyers directly from raw population.

How would this change if you accounted for multi TV households buying more than one?
What data source would you use to validate the replacement cycle assumption?