Japan’s JVC set to re-enter Indian TV market via SPPL licensing deal

JVC India

Japan’s JVC is re-entering the Indian smart TV market through a licensing agreement with Noida-based TV and audio products maker Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL). For its second attempt, the Japanese company has tied up with Amazon.

In 2019, JVC partnered with Veira Group, an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for consumer durables in India, in collaboration with Flipkart but the partnership didn’t take off.

“JVC was a prominent brand in India’s audio space, and we now plan to launch it exclusively on Amazon with its high-end TVs. We intend to take it offline (at a later stage) and are actively scouting for large-format retail partners in India,” Pallavi Singh, Country Representative, JVC TV India, told Moneycontrol.

JVC India plans to offer televisions ranging from 32 to 75 inches. “We are hoping to fill the space created after the exits of several brands last year. We intend to achieve a 7 percent market share in the next three years with Rs 500 crore in revenue,” she added.

SPPL is already known for licensing agreements with global brands such as Thomson, Kodak, Blaupunkt and Westinghouse in the TV space. The domestic manufacturer, a Rs 1000-crore company, is expanding its capacity to support this venture through its new facility in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur.

“SPPL’s current manufacturing facility has a capacity of 30,000 TVs a month. But the Hapur faciility will increase the company’s capacity by 10 times,” Singh said.

SPPL is looking to grow its TV business significantly and is in talks with Shenzhen Skyworth Digital for a licensing deal to relaunch the Philips TV brand in India, sources told Moneycontrol.

Skyworth has a licence from Philips for televisions in India and some other markets.

A query sent to SPPL on Philips didn’t elicit a response.

Discussing the smart TV market in India, Singh said while it has evolved into a replacement-driven market, the exit of several brands has created opportunities for others to tap into the potential offered by the replacement cycle.

Counterpoint Research shows that India’s smart TV market declined by 2–3 percent in the first half of 2024 due to macroeconomic challenges, inflation and cautious consumer spending. However, the market revived in the July-August period, driven by festival offers, growing seven percent from the year-ago period.

Rising input costs also led to contraction in the first half of the year. As margins shrank for smaller brands, some exited the Indian market.

Chinese handset brands like OnePlus and Realme withdrew from India’s smart TV segment, unable to compete with established players such as Xiaomi, Samsung, LG, Sony and TCL.

As per Counterpoint, LG, Sony, TCL, Samsung, and Xiaomi accounted for over half of the smart TV shipments in the first half of 2024.

“JVC’s TV prices will start from Rs 11,999 and go up Rs 90,000. However, our focus will be on the premium segment, which is 43 inches in size and onwards. JVC has a strong legacy, and we have still found a good brand recall in India. We should be able to position ourselves decently in category A and category B brands in India,” Singh said.