Asia ‘to see good growth in flat-screen TVs’

Thursday 20 Oct 2011
The global television market is forecast to stagnate this year due to contracted demand in North America and Europe, an industry report showed today, The Korea Herald reports.

However, countries in emerging regions such as China, the Asia Pacific and Latin America will report the strongest flat screen TV growth over the next four years, averaging 11 percent growth each year, according to market researcher DisplaySearch.

Total global shipments of TVs will likely hold steady at 248 million units this year, the company said. Liquid crystal display TVs will account for 206 million sets and plasma TVs for another 17 million, it said.

“Demand in regions like North America and Europe has fallen short of expectations as persistent economic problems have made consumers cautious in their spending and highly value-seeking,” DisplaySearch said.

“Emerging markets continue to show good growth, but it is not strong enough to offset the weaker demand in developed markets and, as a result, we have lowered our unit forecasts for LCD and plasma TVs.”

Sales of flat panel TVs will rise about 6 percent on-year thanks to increased demand in emerging markets to replace old cathode ray tube TVs, it said.

However, developed regions will decline an average of 1 percent each year.