Once upon a time, there were just a handful of shows, there was only a choice between two stations, NBC and CBS, and televisions sat on the floor in huge cabinets with poor picture quality.
Today, the best sets are gigantic, feature a high-definition image that’s almost better than life, they’re WiFi-enabled, and there are more channels and shows and streaming services than anyone in 1955 could have ever imagined.
With all of the changes and advances in television technology, the companies who make television sets have come and gone. The wave of change in the industry seems to be moving faster and companies that were household names just a decade ago are gone now.
While this list of the biggest television producers will probably be familiar to you, there are sure to be names you once knew that are missing.
Since technology is a global industry, it’s not surprising that the United States has slid so far in comparison to some other countries that are leading the way. There is only one television set producer in this list that’s an American company.
Samsung
2022 Annual Revenue: $224.76 billion
A true leader in not only television technology, Samsung Electronics is the world’s second-largest manufacturer of consumer electronics by revenue. Samsung makes cellphones, batteries, tablet computers, memory chips, televisions, and more. This South Korean company has a place in almost every home in one way or another.
One of the reasons Samsung does so well in the television market is because they’re experts at screens. Not just television screens but also tablets, phones, and computer screens. They’ve taken this market to a new level with thinner and better quality screens.
Today they are the world’s largest manufacturer of OLED screens, which are organic light-emitting diodes. Each pixel in an OLED display is made of a material that glows when you turn on the electricity. This creates incredible resolution.
But that’s not all they’re known for. They also have created incredibly thin LCD panels so screens can be larger and lighter weight. Then there is curved display technology and they’ve even created a flexible display. Interestingly, in 2020 they announced they were leaving the LCD business behind.
And we’d be remiss if we only focused on the screens; it was Samsung who introduced internet TV to the market in 2007 and later rolled out the Smart LED Tv.
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Sony Corporation
2022 Annual Revenue: $88.30 billion
Sony has been a leader in televisions for a long time. This Japanese company first became well-known in the United States in the 1950s with a transistor radio. By 1959 they had introduced the TV8-301, the world’s first all-transistor television. Their televisions went through popular names like Trinitron, WEGA, BRAVIA.
Sony held the number one market share in the global television market for decades but finally lost that title in 2006. Even though they seemed to be doing well, there were some struggles.
The company is pretty well known for its ups and downs and they’re continuing today in the form of merging divisions, selling off segments, and purchasing other businesses.
While this may continue to be the way Sony works, it doesn’t appear to take away from their reputation and their hold in the television industry.
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LG Electronics
2022 Annual Revenue: $64.90 billion
Another South Korean electronics company, LG Electronics is part of LG Corporation and they are also widely diversified. The parent company has four business units: Home Entertainment (which includes televisions), Mobile Communications, Home Appliances Air Solutions, and Vehicle Components.
It was the acquisition of Zenith, a huge name in television sets, in 1995 that gave them such a head start in the field. Since 2008, they’ve maintained the world’s second-largest LCD television manufacturing position.
In 2007 LG introduced NetCast Entertainment Access, which was their version of an internet-capable television. They later renamed it to the LG Smart TV and added more interactive services.
One interesting aspect of LG’s technology — in 2016, in their Indian market, they started selling TVs that repel mosquitoes by using ultrasonic waves.
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Panasonic
2022 Annual Revenue: $65.76 billion
Panasonic is a popular television brand to customers in the United States but you might be surprised to stop in at Best Buy and find that you’re unable to purchase or even locate a Panasonic television.
That’s because in 2016 this Japanese television giant stopped selling TV sets in the United States, including ceasing all sales with their major distributor, Best Buy.
Originally, the Panasonic Corporation was known as Matsush*ta Electric and they were a lightbulb socket manufacturer. They branched out and began selling electronics, and with extreme success.
Not only do they sell electronics, but their sales of Li-ion auto batteries are also very well-known. But while they were focused on other products, their plasma television sets began to fall out of favor and their TV division suffered.
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Hisense
2021 Annual Revenue: $27.20 billion
Hisense Group is one of the lesser-known television set producers on this list but they’re still a huge force in the industry. Hisense is a Chinese state-owned company focused on large appliances and electronics.
This company also got its start making radios and debuted in 1969. Their first television model, the CJD18 was produced in 1978 and they earned the right to sell televisions in the United States in 2015.
At that time, they sold televisions in the United States under the brand name of Sharp, which is probably why Hisense is not a household name; people in the U.S. know them as Sharp.
But the Sharp Hisense saga doesn’t end there. Hisense is a Chinese company and Sharp was a Japanese company. Sharp’s American assets were purchased in 2015 and they were given a five-year deal to sell in the United States.
But before that deal was finished, Sharp re-acquired its brand and now, once again controls the sales of Sharp TVs in the United States as of 2019.
Even so, Hisense is still a global leader in television sales and if you’re in the market for a television, you might now see Hisense televisions in your favorite big box stores under their actual brand name, not the Sharp name.
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TCL
2022 Annual Revenue: $25.30 billion
TCL is a well-known producer of television sets in the United States. They claim to be America’s fastest-growing television brand and the second-largest TV manufacturer in the world. They sold more than 32 million television sets across the globe last year alone.
TCL, a Chinese-owned company, has taken a vertical integration approach. That means that they make every component that goes into their television sets. Most other companies take a different approach, pulling together different components from different outsourcing companies.
There are only two other companies that also take this approach of keeping everything within one company. The reason for it is they can guarantee the quality and it is less expensive to make all of the parts themselves.
This, in turn, lets them create a less expensive television set, which is typically a primary consideration for consumers who are buying a TV.
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Skyworth
2022 Annual Revenue: $7.60 billion
Chinese company Skyworth sells television and audio-video products and invests in properties. They have a broad base, but they are very well known in other countries for their television capabilities. This is another one of those Chinese companies that doesn’t have much recognition in the United States, but that may change.
In 2017 Skyworth opened its first American corporate branch office in California. Skyworth was planning on shipping smart TVs to the U.S. market in 2020 but the pandemic interrupted that business plan. They are hoping to make an impact in the U.S. market in 2021 with a lineup of OLED smart televisions and LED-backlit LCD TVs.
a long history in the television business, so it may become a very well-known brand within the next few years. They might even earn a higher spot on this list.
Vizio
2021 Annual Revenue: $1.86 billion
Vizio is the one American brand on this list. A privately-held company, Vizio was founded in 2002 and is based in Irvine, California. Vizio found their niche in the market by creating inexpensive HDTVs, offering many people a chance to bring home an affordable HDTV set.
In 2016, a Chinese company was poised to acquire Vizio. They had announced that they would be making the purchase, but it fell through in 2017.
In 2007 Vizio was the largest LCD television seller in North America, which was good for them because the plasma market was beginning to fail. This was further emphasized when Vizio announced they would stop making plasma televisions in 2009.
Poised to enter the smart TV realm, Vizio’s offering was SmartCast TV which let users control their televisions from a tablet or mobile app. By the next year, 2017, they relaunched their smart TV offering to include apps already on the screen of the television set.
Which manufacturer sells the most TVs?
Samsung sells the most TVs in the world. With a revenue of $224.76 billion, Samsung is clearly a dominant player in the electronics industry. According to their own press releases, in 2022, Samsung sold 9.65 million units of QLED and Neo QLED TVs and had a 36.1% and 42.9% market share for TVs over 75-inches and 80-inches respectively.
Which country makes the most TV sets?
China makes the most TV sets. It is estimated that China has produced over 400 million TV sets. The United States makes the second most amount of TV sets, while Japan ranks third.
