With new-age smart TVs being launched, the 'Content Raj' has come!

Phone makers disrupt TV market with compelling combos of content and screen size

Indian TV buyers are snapping up the largest models they can afford on seasonal purchase offers. They can barely achieve the minimum safe viewing distance in cramped flats, but who cares Bada TV hai na!

Interestingly, the biggest innovations in television, seem to come from companies who are also smart phone makers. They have learnt what differentiates handsets of almost identical specs: customised content and pre-loaded entertainment. They are scaling up their screens, from a 6-inch phone to a 60-inch TV set (often, both with Dolby and HD).

Last week, two China-based players, both with smartphone offerings in India, entered the television arena here, with products which look set to disrupt the market with their aggressive pricing — even without considering the technology.

Le Eco, which in its earlier avatar, LeTV, was one of the biggest content providers for television in China, has smartly (pun intended), entered the TV market here with a trio of sets at the big end of the TV spectrum. The TVs are sold with a combo of carefully curated desi and international content — live shows, movies, sports and music. By tying up with content biggies — Hungama, Yupp TV, Eros — they offer a platter of 2,000 HD movies, over 3 million songs and 100 satellite TV channels as a package deal with each TV model. If the first generation of television was all about simple broadcasting and the second was a platform for multiple channels, Generation 3.0 is a big screen that is Internet-connected to an ecosystem of infotainment options. The Connected Smart TV is here.

You can control the screen by voice or gesture. You can change channels by waving the remote, or using your mobile phone instead. And you can store your favourite programming in your own 5 terabyte-cloud and share clips or music much as you now do with Whatsapp. What I saw in Delhi three days ago was a seamless merger of TV, mobile and Internet — with customisable content.

Specwise, LeEco has chosen to address the top end of the TV market: their three launches in India are: the 65-inch 3D UHD TV, the Super 3 Max 65; the 65-inch ultra HD Super 3 X65 and the 55-inch UHD Super 3 X55. All three are 4K displays, all are WiFi enabled and Android 5.0 driven. I was tickled to see TVs rated like PCs: 3GB RAM, 16 GB Flash storage... this is PC-TV sangam in action .

The Max 65 is priced at Rs 1,49,790, half of what competing sets cost. The X65 costs Rs 99,790 and theX55 is Rs 55,790, all aggressively priced in their respective categories. Their USP is the access to all that content which is valued at around Rs 5000 a year and comes free for two years.

Fuelling ‘The Creative Life’ TCL has stood for many things in the past, from ‘Telephone Communication Ltd’ to ‘True China Lion’ but on its return to India, it has settled for ‘The Creative Life’. It has chosen to launch its TV business in India, with four compellingly priced sets: two full HD (but not connected) models in the D2900 series: 32 and 40-inch at Rs 13,990 and Rs 20,990 and. the TCL P1 Smart TV series with a 48-inch curved full HD TV for Rs 37,990 and the better-resolution, but smaller UHD at 43-inches for Rs 31,990. The smart TV sets have conveniently put their more interesting functions into an app.

There is no overlap between the India offerings of TCL and LeEco for a reason: They work closely in China and in fact TCL makes some of the sets for Le Eco and in turn uses its content.

Here, too, it seems, the upcoming festival season will see some great deals for customers.

An old Chinese benediction says “May you live in interesting times”. Today, that should perhaps read: “May you live in disruptive times”!