Festive season brings 14% growth for CTV segment

Our Corporate Bureau

Chennai, Dec 6: The colour television (CTV) manufacturers seem to be among the lucky few who had a really happy and prosperous Diwali this year. The industry grew by 13.7 per cent in terms of volume and value by 3.6 per cent in the festival months of October-November, according to Consumer Electronics and TV Manufacturers Association (CETMA).

About 1.3 million units valued at Rs 1,450 crore were sold this season as against 1.15 million units valued at Rs 1,400 in October-November 2000. The value-wise growth figures are much lower than the volume growth because of huge price erosion to the tune of 8.4 per cent in this period over last year, said Mr Rajeev Karwal, president of CETMA.

The black and white TV, however, declined by 25.8 per cent in volume terms and by 28.68 per cent in terms of value during the period. Against 5.8 lakh units at Rs 140 crore for October-November last year, this year the figures were 4.3 lakh units at Rs 100 crore. Despite the fact that pre and post manufacturing levies increased, the consumers enjoyed lower prices to the tune of 3.8 per cent.

The audio market also grew by 4 per cent in value terms from Rs 250 crore to Rs 260 crore. The main drivers of growth were three segments — Mini system with VCD MP3 & VCD RCR MP3 and headman stereos (Walkmans), which now constitute 30, 7 and 4 per cent of the total audio market, respectively. But, these categories have majority of their sale in urban and semi-urban areas. The other product segments in the audio category like radios, monos, stereos and mini system with audio CD have recorded a huge decline of 4 to 35 per cent.

The industry is back on growth path following the five-point programme CETMA launched a few months back for the industry to overcome the recessionary trend since 1999, said Mr Karwal. The programme said all manufacturers should aggressively launch new technologies and products, create better customer value propositions through better value packages, finance options and reach; look at opportunities for mutually beneficial relationships and good tie-ups with trade; look at cutting costs and managing supply chain well and not cut down advertising and marketing spend in terms of a percentage of overall revenue.