Hisense taps US digital TV market
14/1/2004 17:58
Qingdao-based home appliance conglomeration Hisense Group will provide
some 400,000 TV top sets each year to the United States from 2004, according to
an agreement it signed on January 8 with US Digital Television Inc. as reported
by today's Beijing Morning Post.
It marks a change of domestic TV
manufacturers' interest from the traditional analog products to the digital
market following US' ban of China's TV sets, industry analysts noted.
The
first batch of 100,000 sets for this year will soon be dispatched, the report
said.
The agreement hasn't set a duration period and the annual supply volume
will vary according to the demand.
TV top sets are equipments that help
analog TV sets to receive digital TV programs.
Confident about the fledging
digital market, Hisense expects to expand its TV business into US via the
cooperation, according to its spokeswoman cited by the Beijing Morning Post
report.
She said the cooperation could help Hisense gain an access to shelves
of the world's largest retailer chain Wal-Mart store around US, because Wal-Mart
is USDTV's biggest shareholder.
Prior to the US deal, Hisense has injected 30
million yuan (US$3.6 million) in Shandong Province's TV and radio network,
eyeing for a market of 1 million TV top sets there.
Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
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