LG wins the festive race in TV sales

In the battle to sell more television sets during the Diwali-Dassera season, South Korean giant, LG Electronics, has won over over arch-rival, Samsung Electronics.

However, in the fast-growing segment of flat panel televisions, where consumer durable companies make their margins, Samsung wins the game.

The results are significant as the festive period accounts for one-third of the annual consumer durable industry sales.

Samsung claims that it sold 22,000 flat panel televisions in the two-month period, while LG executives put their sales figures at 10,000 units.

The total segment sold 35,000-40,000 units during the festive season. Sony claims to have sold 4,000 units while Panasonic pegged the figures at nearly 3,000 units.

Sales estimates from market research agencies like ORG will only be available by the end of the month.

Industry experts had estimated that the September-October period would account for 45,000 LCD televisions and 8,000-10,000 plasma televisions. Annual sales for LCD's is estimated at 1,40,00-1,50,000 units and 50,000 units for plasma televisions during the entire calendar year.

However, industry insiders conceded that plasma television sales had not taken off as expected.

In the remaining segments, LG was ahead. Of total industry sales of over 2.3 million televisions, LG claims to have sold 7,42,600 units "" a growth of 12 per cent "" while Samsung sold 410,000 units, a growth of 25 per cent.

Most sales happened in the flat television category, showing a decided shift in consumer buying preference from curved cathode ray tube TVs.

Overall year-on-year growth during the festive season from consumer electronics stands at 22 per cent for LG at Rs 1,464 crore, while that of Samsung is at 37 per cent at Rs 850 crore.

While the former earmarked Rs 100 for marketing and promotional schemes for the period, Samsung had allotted Rs 55 crore.