TV shipments in India hit record 15 million units in 2019, Xiaomi leads smart TV segment

Driven by budget smart TVs by brands like Xiaomi, Samsung, TCL, Vu and others, the overall TV market in India saw its highest-ever shipment of 15 million units in 2019 - a 15 per cent increase (year-on-year), a new report said on Tuesday.

While Samsung led the overall TV segment, Xiaomi was the leader in the smart TV segment with 40 per cent (YoY) growth in 2019.

The growth is mainly driven by budget smart TVs with 32-inch TVs leading the segment and penetrating sub-$150 price bands, according to latest research from Counterpoint's 'TV Tracker Service'.

"Affordability and value for money are the key growth drivers. The new crop of brands such as Xiaomi, TCL and others are tapping their existing relationships with e-commerce channels such as Flipkart, Amazon, etc to successfully distribute the TVs affordably with a direct-to-consumer model," said Senior Analyst Karn Chauhan.

Samsung recorded a 6 per cent (YoY) growth, mostly coming from its smart TV portfolio that saw 5 per cent growth and includes N5000, N7000, R5000 and R7000 models.

"Samsung continues to lead the overall TV market but the emerging smart TV segment is being cornered by the newer players. Smart TV was the fastest-growing segment, up 25 per cent YoY," said Research Analyst Debasish Jana.

LED TVs still account for more than 90 per cent of the market in India while OLED and QLED TV the rest.

Non-smart TV grew by 7 per cent (YoY) in 2019.

"While Samsung, LG, Sony are experiencing a YoY decrease in their non-smart TV business, brands like BPL, Sansui and others are still banking on the non-smart TV segment that mainly caters to the rural market, B2B segment or a second bedroom TV in many cases," informed Jana.

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Xiaomi is offering a 55-inch smart TV with a 4K panel at below ₹50,000 , TCL is selling its AI-powered 55-inch 4K TV at only ₹35,000 and OnePlus is offering 55-inch 4K QLED TV with 50-watt Soundbar for ₹100,000.

These cutting-edge but relatively affordable offerings have been steering mature smartphone users to purchase large-sized smart TVs. This strategy helped brands such as Xiaomi and TCL to grow its shipment volumes by 40 per cent and 110 per cent (YoY), respectively in 2019, the report noted.

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Last year 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.

LG's share has taken a hit due to lower than expected performance in the non-smart TV market, the report said.

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 growth. X80G, X90G and A8F series became quite popular for Sony this year.