DisplaySearch: European TV market to grow 28 percent by 2012

Market research from DisplaySearch indicates that the total TV market will grow 24 percent between 2007 and 2012, with shipments rising from 42.9 million to 53.1 million units in this period. In particular, this increase is being driven by the Eastern European market, which is set to grow by 31 percent by 2012.

"Eastern Europe, including Russia and Turkey, is the fastest-growing television market in the world today," said Paul Gray, DisplaySearch's Director of European TV Research. "Our analysis shows that the rate of uptake of flat panel TVs is as fast in Eastern Europe as it was in Western Europe and Japan in 2005 and 2006. As a result, we are seeing a rapid transition to LCD and Plasma technologies and the market has accelerated the adoption of larger sizes especially 32", as they have reached mass-market price points. CRT television shipments are consequently falling fast and are forecast to effectively vanish after 2011. It has been a dramatic shift: In Q3 of 2007, shipments were about even between flat technologies and CRT, but by the end of this year over 75% of the market will be LCD or Plasma."

Samsung captured the leading shipment market share across Europe for all TVs with 31.0 percent of sales, followed by LGE 13.4 percent and Philips ranked third at 12.7 percent in Q1'08.

The report also shows that CRT TV now accounts for only 5 percent of the shipments in Western Europe, and is expected to disappear entirely from Western European markets by 2010. The European Cup and Olympics are expected to have little overall effect on the market, except for increased demand earlier in 2008.

In addition, DataSearch predicts that 1080p (or 'full HD') share will grow from 13 percent of shipments in Q1 2008 to 32 percent in Q1 of 2010 for Western Europe; in Eastern Europe, it accelerates from 5 percent to 19 percent in the same period.

In Western Europe For 100 Hz units are expected to see growth from 1.5 million units shipped in 2007 to 11.9 million in 2012. OLED TV is expected to ship 1.01 million units in Europe in 2012.