Reaching the highest-ever 15 million units, the shipments of TVs in India grew 15 per cent annually in 2019, a new report has said. According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s TV Tracker service, the growth was driven by budget smart TVs with 32-inch TVs the leading segment. Brands such as Xiaomi, Samsung, LG, TCL and VU, launched affordable TVs and e-commerce channels such as Flipkart, Amazon, played an important part in distributing the TVs with a direct-to-consumer model.
‘India is one of the largest markets in the world with more than 200 million potential TV households and is still underpenetrated which makes India a more attractive growth market for the entire TV and content value chain. The growing number of smartphone users in India is also driving a need for Smart TV as users look to continue their streaming content consumption on the bigger screens when at home. The broader broadband penetration in the home will further drive the overall smart TV usage. Though affordability and value for money are the key growth drivers,’ Karn Chauhan, Senior Analyst, Counterpoint Research, said in a statement.
According to Debasish Jana, Research Analyst, Smart TV was the fastest-growing segment, up 25 per cent YoY. The smart TV market in India was driven by brands like Xiaomi, Samsung and emerging tail brands such as TCL, Vu and others, which are leveraging their growing channel presence both online and offline. Non-smart TV grew by 7 per cent year-over-year (YoY) in 2019. Samsung, LG, Sony experienced a YoY decrease in their non-smart TV business, brands like BPL, Sansui and others are still banking on the non-smart TV segment.
‘Brands like Xiaomi, TCL, VU have been expanding over the last few years taking on incumbents such as Samsung, LG, Sony, and Panasonic. Furthermore, 2019 was marked by the entry of smartphone brands such as Motorola, Nokia, OnePlus with their Smart TVs looking to build a connected device story complementing their smartphone devices. These new-age brands from Xiaomi to OnePlus are offering high specifications, some unique features at highly affordable price-points targeting urban users via e-commerce channels,’ Jana added.
Samsung recorded a 6 per cent YoY growth in 2019. This growth is mostly coming from its smart TV portfolio which saw 5 per cent YoY growth. In the Rs 50,000 and above price segment Samsung leads the market with a 40 per cent market share.
While Samsung leads the overall TV segment, Xiaomi is the leader in the smart TV segment with 40 per cent YoY growth in 2019.
For LG, 32- and 43-inch TVs performed well in 2019. LG is growing in the sub-Rs 30,000 segment. In 2019, LG introduced its Nano cell Smart TV with ThinQ AI technology in India.
Sony’s overall TV shipments declined 14 per cent YoY. Smart TV, on the other hand, helped Sony to keep some of its markets with 3 per cent YoY growth.
TCL made 110 per cent YoY growth this year. Its smart TV business grew with a 186 per cent YoY increase.
Other brands like Kodak and Thomson made a 40 per cent YoY growth in the market while VU and BPL have recorded 16 per cent and 35 per cent growth respectively.
LED TVs still account for more than 90 per cent of the market in India, OLED and QLED TV the rest. Android is leading the smart TV market when it comes to the operating system (OS) with a 30 per cent market followed by Samsung and LG’s homegrown TV platforms Tizen and WebOS respectively.
