Compared to a moderate growth witnessed by the colour television industry, the flat TV category has experienced a huge growth rate, both in value terms and volume wise in the first half of the year.
With more sales expected during the festival season, this segment -- which is increasingly becoming important for the industry -- is expected to see a launch of many more models in the coming months.
Outlining the reasons for this, Ravinder Zutshi, director sales, Samsung India Electronics Ltd said, "The cricket World Cup provided an opportunity to launch more models. Apart from product line up, advertising has played its role by educating consumers on the benefits of flat TVs. The category has also seen the effect of technological upgradation being passed on consumers through new features which has also generated their interest."
According to the latest ORG-gfk data, against a 15.6 per cent volume growth in January-June this year achieved by the conventional colour television segment, over the corresponding period last year, the flat segment notched a 127.2 per cent growth.
In value terms the figures were 6.8 and 79.2 per cent, respectively.
Although the growth in the flat segment has stemmed from a low base, it has remained positive in June when the CCTV segment saw a fall in volumes by 17.4 per cent as against a 23 per cent growth witnessed by this category year-on-year.
Agreed Anil Arora, head of marketing - LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd.
"Although prices of both CCTVs and flats have fallen, this category has been pushed aggressively by the players which has resulted in an increase in awareness about the product. There is however, tremendous potential for growth here. We have had a 297 per cent value growth -- the highest in the industry -- in the first half of the year," Arora said.
According to Videocon chairman VN Dhoot, "The price differential between the conventional and the flat television models has narrowed down from Rs 6,000 to Rs 2,000 now."
"Also, previously only imported, flat picture tubes are now being manufactured by Videocon and supplied to various manufacturers. The price of each unit of these has as a result come down from Rs 6,000 a unit to Rs 3,500," he said.
With the festival season about to begin, almost all companies are launching new models of flat TVs.
It accounted for 7.6 per cent of the total colour television sales in the first half of this year which rose to 8.2 per cent in June. At 6 per cent last year, this is expected to be 10 per cent next year.
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