With Elections & IPL Coming Up, TV Makers Expect Sales Growth To Increase By 30-40%

- Writankar Mukherjee
KOLKATA :

WITH elections and IPL round the corner, the country's leading television makers are gearing themselves for the act. The likes of LG, Samsung and Philips expect the April-May period will drive sales growth in the TV market by 30-40% compared to the usual 8% growth in sales.

Apart from launching new models, the leading brands also plan to aggressively promote their TV portfolio over the next two months. "Elections and any major cricket event usually has a strong impact on TV viewing. We expect there will be a positive rub-off effect of this on the TV market as consumers will have a compelling reason to upgrade their sets," Samsung India Electronics, deputy MD Ravinder Zutshi told ET. Samsung, for instance, has just launched six new slim CRT TVs and is planning to roll-out a new range of flat panel TV.

The firm has also bought advertisement air-time from Sony Max for on-air promotions of its TV portfolio during the IPL. "Based on these initiatives, we expect our TV sales to jump by about 35%," said Mr Zutshi. LG Electronics India expects the elections and IPL season will contribute around 20% to its annual TV sales target. "These two events will provide the much needed boost in sales in the current economic slowdown. We expect to sell around 7 lakh TV sets in April-May," LG Electronics India head (consumer electronics) Amitabh Tiwari said. The manufacturers expect substantial demand will also be generated from the smaller towns.

"Apart form the hi-end LCD TV, we feel there will be big offtake for mass segment CRT TV. After all, CRT TV still constitutes two-thirds of the total TV sales in India," said Vivek Sharma, chief marketing officer, Philips Electronics India. While April-June is the season for ACs and refrigerators, the expected surge in TV sales will come as a fresh respite for the consumer electronic firms battling fall in demand. The shift of this year's IPL to South Africa will also create additional demand since a substantial number of people who used to visit the stadium will have to see it on TV. Incidentally, the firms saw some 25% growth in TV sales during last year's IPL.

writankar.mukherjee@timesgroup.com