Panasonic Re-Enters U.S. TV Market

Panasonic has re-entered the U.S. TV business.

The venerable Japanese brand is bringing three Amazon Fire TV smart TV models, introduced globally earlier this year at CES, to U.S. retailers starting immediately. The company essentially stopped making new TV sets for the U.S. market in 2014, selling what remained in the pipeline, then officially exited the U.S. market two years later. Panasonic continued to produce TVs for the international market, including some of the first non-LG OLED models.

The three new U.S. Panasonic TV models are:

• Z95A OLED, 65-inch only ($3,199.99), with Technics 360 Soundscape Pro surround sound
• Z85A OLED, 55- ($1,599.99), 65-inches ($1,799.99), with Panasonic’s Theater Surround Pro
• W95A mini-LED, 55- ($1,299.99), 65- ($1,799.99), 75- ($2,299.99), 85-inches ($2,999.99), with Dynamic Theater Sound

While described as “premium” Amazon Fire TVs, Panasonic’s pricing places its new OLED sets as affordable alternatives to more expensive OLEDs from LG and Sony, and the W95A mini-LED editions are all priced less than TCL’s latest flagship QM851 mini-LED models.

Panasonic North America’s business development director Alex Fried stresses that these new sets are pure Panasonic TVs, “not off-the-shelf devices that are rebranded with our name.” All three TVs are essentially U.S. regional editions of global models that “bring with them all of the quality and precision and technology that consumers expect and demand from Japan’s number one electronics brand,” according to Fried.

Not the Same Panasonic

Fried believes the Panasonic that left the U.S. TV market a decade ago is not the same Panasonic of today.

“We’ve gone through some fundamental organizational and structural changes,” Fried explains. “Those changes have allowed individual companies and business units [within Panasonic] to be more autonomous or independent in decision making, more strategic in the decisions that they make. The TV business unit has used that autonomy and independence to restructure how it manufactures, how it develops, how it partners, and it uses all these things to drive that competitiveness engine to enable us to facilitate a return to the U.S.”

All three native 120Hz models run on Panasonic’s newest HCX Pro AI MK II processing chip that includes both manual and automatic AI picture settings and calibration, HDMI 2.1 HFR/VRR/144Hz support, and Game Mode Extreme and a Game Control Board. The OLED models include Nvidia 6 Sync graphics and AMD Freesync support. The sets also include picture settings and Filmmaker Mode optimized via Panasonic’s nearly quarter-century collaboration with the Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory.

According to Panasonic, the Master OLED Ultimate panels used in the sets deploy a microlens array, a layer of micro convex lenses that direct light previously reflected inwards to emanate from the screen instead to increase overall display brightness, a traditional OLED weak spot. Panasonic’s HCX Pro AI MK II processor powers the same color management system used in professional monitors, supports all advanced HDR formats including Dolby Vision IQ Precision, tone-mapping, and uses AI to enhance details, color gradation, and motion images.

Sound-wise, Technic’s 360 Soundscape Pro found on the flagship Z95A includes front, side, and up-firing speakers. All three models also integrate a subwoofer.

Why Come Back?

Panasonic surprised the industry when it scaled back its U.S. TV business in 2014 and then totally withdrew from the U.S. TV market in 2016. Fried recognizes not much has fundamentally changed in the retail TV business in the succeeding years – the U.S. TV business is still crowded with a lot of similar products, and both margins and profitability remain a challenge.

So why come back?

“We’re not naïve,” Fried acknowledges. “We are not walking into this with eyes closed. We understand we’re jumping into the deep end of the pool. But we feel we have the right ammunition to be competitive in the fight, between the product, between the [Amazon] partnership, between the feature set, between the performance ¬– all these things combined give us the right ammunition to be a player in this game.”

Panasonic believes its partnership with Amazon might give it a bit of a competitive leg up. Not only will Panasonic be Amazon’s first “premium” TV partner, but Amazon will provide Panasonic with entry into the elusive smart home market.

Amazon is “going to open up that long tail of content and smart home integration that, frankly, Panasonic was not able to achieve easily on its own,” Fried admits. “This is a way for us to enhance the functionality and usability of our devices in a way that Panasonic by itself would not be able to achieve.”

All three Panasonic sets include the Fire TV Ambient Experience, which can display personal photos and information such as calendars and reminders through customizable Alexa widgets. In addition, the TV remotes have a “MyApp” button that can be programmed to directly open an app, tune to a channel, or a frequently used voice control command.

Finally, Fried cites demand from U.S. consumers for Panasonic TVs via social media, trade shows, and comments in reviews of global models, as a rationale for returning. These varying consumer requests “showed us that that demand, that thirst for Panasonic being back in this market, still existed,” Fried says. “It definitely made us feel more comfortable that we were making the right decision and that we would be received positively and enthusiastically.”

See also: Samsung “Premieres” Two New 4K Ultra-Short Throw Projectors