Pioneer Corp. will discontinue its unprofitable, set-top box business for satellite and cable TV in the US and Europe by next March and build the digital-conversion functions into its products.
"The trend is to have digital tuners built into televisions and that's what we will focus on doing," Pioneer's president Kaneo Ito said in an interview in Tokyo.
Pioneer exited money-losing businesses such as mobile phones and is transferring its technology to areas with growth potential to achieve its revenue target of more than ?1 trillion (US$9 billion) and operating profit of ?75 billion by the year to March 2006.
The company has supplied the converters for cable operators that include Time Warner Inc in the US and Paris-based Canal Plus. It will continue technical support for them while transferring its engineers, including those in Japan, to its flat-panel display and TV division -- a key growth opportunity, Ito said.
Pioneer will keep making the set-top adapters in Japan, where it is probably the second-biggest supplier after Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. The company lowered its shipment forecast for the product three times in the business year that ended March, in part because cable operators put off introducing new services.
Shipments in the US and Europe were down by nearly half in the year to March, and are expected to drop 50 percent this business year.
Ito said he plans to have digital tuners built into other consumer products, including Pioneer's DVD recorders. The company's new plasma-display TVs, to be sold starting next week, will also have the tuners built in.
The global market for plasma TVs is estimated to almost double this year, to 1.95 million units, according to Japan Electronic & Information Technology Industries Associations.
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