KARACHI, March 20: The buying euphoria among the cricket fans in the TV market seems to have finally lost the enthusiasm with the shameful ouster of Pakistan from the World Cup 2007.
Currently, there are hardly any passionate buyers who are on a TV hunt especially with World Cup intention. Mostly those buyers are roaming in the markets who want to buy the electronic box for dowry purpose or other reasons.
Buyers had turned up just ahead of West Indies-Pakistan opening match but their presence had started shrinking when Pakistan lost its first match against the host followed by an unexpected defeat from Ireland.
“We used to sell 20-25 sets a day when World Cup got underway but the sales continued to come down after two defeats in a row,” a TV dealer at Regal Chowk said.
“Now we hardly manage to sell two to five sets a day as buyers have disappeared from the market after Pakistan’s ouster from the biggest cricket event,” he added.
He said many shopkeepers had given prominent display especially to the LCD and Plasma TV besides decorating their shops while manufacturers had also offered gifts.
Giving an idea of falling sales, another dealer said that if 50 shopkeepers used to sell 100-150 plasma and LCD a day then they were now selling hardly 10 such kind of sets. Even the sales of 14 and 21-inch TV sets had also faced a setback after World Cup debacle.
It may be noted here that the TV makers had not shown any sign of satisfactory sales before the World Cup and even they were not hopeful for a big boom in sales during the event.
TV sales had experienced a major boom in the last World Cup in 2003. Dealers said that from the start of this World Cup to the ouster of Pakistani team the event had failed to bring any zest among the buyers to go wild for TV sets as compared to the previous world cup.
However, the dealers now pin hopes for some pick up in sales before the semi final and the final but they are unlikely to witness huge buyers as Pakistan is no more in the event.
Pakistan Electronics Manufacturers Association (PEMA) Vice-Chairman Haroon Niazi told Dawn from Lahore that TV sales had literally remained normal ahead of World Cup and during the event. Since it had not witnessed any artificial boom before and during the World Cup then it means that the market was still stable.
“The market currently has either routine kind of buyers or those who give TV to their daughters for dowry purpose. There is a boom in sales of Plasma and LCD TV but it has very limited market share of two to three per cent of total TV market size,” he added.
