Market turning on to Korean digital TV makers

Korean makers of television sets are making some headway in the domestic large-screen digital TV market, which has been dominated by foreign makers such as Sony and Panasonic. Yesterday, Samsung said that its aggregate sales of its PAVV brand of TV sets have now passed the 1-million mark, seven years and nine months after the first PAVV-brand projection TV was released. “The domestic digital TV market has grown by more than 70 percent each year thanks to continual cuts in prices and to high-definition broadcasting,” said Baik Nam-yuk, head of Samsung Electronics’ domestic marketing team. LG Electronics, which released its Xcanvas brand in 2001, is also on the verge of hitting the 1-million mark. “We expect to achieve 1 million next month, although the Xcanvas was launched three years after [PAVV],” an LG spokesman said. “In the early 2000s, the market scale was about 10,000 units a year, but by late last year, it expanded to 50,000 units a month. Just this year and the next, we expect to sell more than 1 million digital televisions.” The biggest factor that contributed to the growth of the domestic digital television market is the drastic decrease in prices. In the case of DLP projections, 42-inch models cost about 4.6 million won ($4,845 at current rates) in 2000, but now, 55-inch models sell for 1.5 million won. For plasma display panel televisions, 50-inch flat panels cost 50 million won in 1999, about the same price as a car. Now, 50-inch screens cost about 3 million won. In the case of liquid crystal display televisions, a 32-inch screen used to be 11 million won in 2004, but now costs 1.1 million won. “Japan’s Matsushita is selling its plasma televisions for about 5,000 yen ($43) per inch and liquid crystal display prices are falling due to Samsung Electronics’ and LG Philips LCD’s investments in seventh-generation production lines,” an industry analyst said. “In the second half of this year, large screens will become a bigger trend, and by the end of the year, 50-inch plasma and 40-inch liquid screen in the 2 million won range will dominate the market.” by Kim Chang-woo, Wohn Dong-hee