Worldwide TV IC Market Grew 21% Y/Y in Q2'08; Mediatek Remains the Market Leader

Thursday, September 11th, 2008
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AUSTIN, Texas — According to DisplaySearch, the worldwide market for TV ICs was 29.8 million units in Q2’08, 21% higher than Q2’07. Shipments were up 7.8% compared to Q1’08, as TV set makers built in line with seasonality and rapid flat panel TV sales growth in the US and Eastern Europe.

Mediatek was #1 with 19.8% share, as design demand grew from Taiwanese ODMs, in particular with the launch of price-fighting models for North America for Samsung and Sony. Trident was #2 with 11% share, down from over 15%. Zoran and MStar continue strong growth as design-wins at ODMs in Taiwan increase production.

Table 1: Q2’08 Top Five TV IC Suppliers by Unit Shipments* (in thousands)

Rank IC Supplier Q2’07 Q1’08 Q2’08 Share
1 Mediatek 2520 5400 5900 19.8%
2 Trident Microsystems 6100 4200 3290 11%
3 MStar 542 2200 2800 9.4%
4 STMicroelectronics** 2950 2800 2500 8.4%
5 Zoran 920 1900 2200 7.4%
  Others 11,702 11,378 13,160 44.1%
  Total 24,734 27,678 29,848  

* Two IC vendors can occupy the same system board for different functions e.g. MPEG decode and video processing, which can give an element of double counting.
** STMicroelectronics bought Genesis Microchip in January, and their shipments are now estimated.

“The battles in TV chips are by no means over,” said Paul Gray, Director of European TV Research. “Mediatek’s growth has slowed as Samsung’s in-house TV IC has appeared in midrange Samsung TVs, and Mediatek has been displaced from much of Samsung’s product range. Increasingly vertically integrated players like Samsung and Panasonic are going to force consolidation in the rest of the market.”

The shipment report will be followed by the full Quarterly TV Electronics Report including shipment, forecasts and analysis in October 2008.