Rebecca Hawkws ©RapidTVNews | 05-09-2011


Panasonic is aiming to take a tenth of India’s flat screen TV pie by the end of the current financial year, according to local reports.

The Japanese company currently registers between six and seven per cent of flat panel TV sales in the populous South Asian nation, according to Daizo Ito, president, Panasonic India.

His company has a reported marketing budget of INR 100 crore for the festival season - which began with Onam in Kerala - during which it hopes to make more of an impact on flat panel sales. Panasonic India’s annual marketing fund is reported to be INR 600 crore.

Mr Ito also told reporters from The Hindu that his company will not be affected by the Sony-Toshiba-Hitachi tie up to create liquid crystal displays (LCD) for mobile devices and cameras, announced last week.

The merged entity, to be called Japan Display KK, aims to be the largest maker of small LCD screens, and will be 70% owned by the Japanese Government-backed Innovation Network Corp, with the remainder shared between the three consumer electronics giants.

Mr Ito stressed Panasonic is instead ‘in the business of making big screens for television sets’ during a recent visit to his brand’s store in Chennai, according to The Hindu Business Line.