LG Electronics targets Indian market with streaming and TV offerings

LG Channels [Courtesy of LG Electronics]

LG Electronics Inc. is looking to tap India’s platform and content sectors as part of the effort to become a media enterprise. The company currently boasts a 90 percent market share in India’s organic light emitting diode (OLED) TV market.

LG Electronics introduced its online streaming service, LG Channels, to India last month, offering live news services in eight of the most-spoken languages in India, including English and Modern Standard Hindi, among the country’s 22 official languages. The company also added a movie channel to the service to target one of the world’s biggest filmmaking industries.

“LG Channels is available for free without requiring cable or additional setup, making it attractive to middle-class customers in India,” according to an unnamed source from the company. “We believe this will be a significant factor in the growing competition among TV manufacturers in the country.”

LG Electronics has offered LG Channel on its smart TVs since 2015, with over 3,500 channels accessible in 28 countries. The service has gained popularity among smart TV buyers as it gives them access to content for free by watching ads, unlike typical over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms. LG Electronics also plans to invest 1 trillion won ($743 million) in platform and content ventures over the next five years, a move to target the Indian market not only with home appliances but also through content services.

For LG Electronics, India is a market with untapped potential. The media and entertainment market in the country was valued at ₹1.88 trillion ($22.6 billion) in 2022, with TVs making up 35 percent and the OTT sector experiencing rapid growth, according to the data from the Korea Trade Promotion Corporation (KOTRA). The number of TV households in India has surged in both urban and rural areas, and demand is expected to rise even further, given the country’s economic growth is forecast to hit 7 to 8 percent a year.

To capture the potential demand, LG Electronics built production plants in Noida and Pune after opening its Noida subsidiary, its first in India, in 1997. According to market research firm Omdia, the Korean company was the biggest OLED TV manufacturer in India, with a market share of around 90 percent as of the third quarter of 2022. Its Indian subsidiary earned 3.18 trillion won in sales last year, achieving a growth rate of 21.4 percent from the previous year.

LG Electronics chief executive officer Cho Joo-wan has paid attention to the company’s expansion into India. He inspected the company’s Noida plants and sales corporation in New Deli during his visit to India in June 2023 and called on his employees to create a business model that spans sales and manufacturing as well as research and development capabilities.