The most prominent invention of the twentieth century is the television. It now has become a common way to view the world as well as proved itself to be an escape from reality.
The invention of television was done in the 1880’s by a German inventor who created simple moving images viewed through a spinning disk. In 1920s scientist’s toyed with the idea of sending still images using radio waves. However it wasn’t until the late 1920s that the idea of a device to show moving images with the technology to wirelessly broadcast them.
This technology was improved upon & it was not until after the Second World War that it began as a standard home appliance in America. The first coloured television was made in 1954.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s that the television came out as a common house appliance for the rest of the world. From the 1970s saw the television as a dominant media force as it is today. In the 1980s, with the help of satellites, it made the world connected. With the coming of internet television has grown out of merely broadcasting & has expanded to several platforms to provide the consumer with the best experience.
India has the world’s third largest television industry. In India televisions form the second largest imports in consumer durables. This industry in India is expected to grow to $11.78 billion from $ 9.23 billion in 2016 showing a growth of 12.97 %.
The changing trend is towards large screen television in recent years in the Indian market. Earlier in the television market, the companies used to focus on producing 24 inch & 32 inch television but in recent years there has been a change in this trend. The traditional market of India has shifted towards LED, LCD & Plasma television. From the past two or three years there has been a huge jump in the sales of 55 inch and above televisions in the Indian market which include high-definition televisions & new age 4K display.
Bigger television screens have always been much sought after. With an increase in consumer’s disposable incomes, the demand for Smart televisions has gone up, contributing around 18-20% to sales in India’s electronics sector.
Factors behind the demand growth to accelerate are rising disposable incomes & easy access to credit, high availability, affordable prices & a rise in a number of families.
India’s middle-class population, growing at the rate of 9% & with higher disposable incomes, has provided the required boost in the demand for Smart TVs & also a dip in prices of Smart TVs as compared to 2 to 3 years ago, has led to high sales.
Recently the government announced that the country has achieved full electrification of 600,000 villages in the country. Thus increasing electrification of rural areas & wide usability of online sales has also aided growth in its demand. Surveys suggest that once electricity reaches a household, the electronic products a consumer buys is a television & a refrigerator as they are two general-use items people tend to buy first once they get electricity. As a result of which the number of TV households in India is expected to reach 200 million by 2020.
Availability of Smart TVs has become one of the preferred mainstream products not just in larger cities but also in smaller towns. Smart TVs are televisions equipped with the ability to interact with the Internet, thus giving consumers access to a huge variety of online content.
This sudden boost is due to increased sum of information taken by an individual. Now a days consumer can view content on various websites such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Hotstar & a host of other such sites. The possibility that the consumer can view all this on big screen is one of the reasons for the increased sales as earlier this was not possible.
With innovations, the technology has started to become more affordable each year. Urban India is already endorsing it & soon rural India will also be ready with increase in Internet penetration.
Television is the biggest medium of communication & will remain so, for the foreseeable future in India. The reason is that television is extremely affordable — one can get a basic cable for Rs.120 a month!
Affordability has been of the major factor pushing the trend of 55 inch televisions. A few years ago the cost of a good 55 inch Smart TVs was more than Rs.2,00,000 but now the same is available for Rs.80,000. The total market has grown from 2016 to 2018 by a total of 10% while the growth for televisions in larger category such as 55 inch & above is growing by roughly 50%. Thus, due to the rising affordability being another important factor of increase in the market demand of television.
The contribution of Smart TVs to overall sales has gone up to 18-20% from 12-14% last year & the share is expected to move up significantly. Increasing innovation in the electronics industry, the cost of Smart TVs is expected to see a downward trend in future.
Multinational companies such as Sony, LG , Panasonic, Samsung & others had increased the growth potential for the market and were the top contenders in the television market but with the coming up of other brands like Micromax & Xiaomi are now giving a stiff competition to them by slashing their prices to as low as Rs.40,000 for a 55 inch & above television. The price of Smart TVs depends on the screen size. Panasonic’s 32-inch Smart TVs start at around Rs.30,000, while the 4K Smart TV starts from Rs.70,000 & goes up to Rs.3,00,000. Most of the companies derive 30 to 35% of their revenues from the sale of televisions. While the growth of the television market in recent years has been at a steady and the number of individuals with access to television has gone up to 835 million.
Factoring these, it can be said that Smart TVs are on their way to become one of the preferred mainstream products in India. India’s growing internet-readiness & faster digitalization, Tv’s are turning smarter leaving the conventional TV sets far behind, which offered only linear viewing.
The trends of consumers shifting towards a modern era by demanding more digitalized and bigger TVs. The total TV growth has increased by 13% since 2016 and in the category of 55 inch and above the growth has been 50% more.
The key reasons for the significant increase in demand of televisions that the article states are as follows.
- Firstly, due to increasing innovation and coming up of the internet as a key feature in TVs the content consumption of consumer is no longer confined to the channels broadcasted by satellites. Also the increasing customer satisfaction by bigger televisions is on the rise.
- Secondly, due to increase in disposable income of the consumer and the reducing prices of televisions has paved the way for a rise in affordability of bigger television.
- Lastly, coming up of new contenders has given a stiff competition to the existing contenders shifting the prices of televisions in favor of the consumers.
With further research into the topic one could observe that not only do these factors play a major role but also the political changes do affect the demand. As due to fully electrifying 600,000 villages the target market has widened causing an increase in the consumer base.
