Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

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NEW SERIES VOL. 3, No. 6 TELEVISION DIGEST— 7 MANUFACTURING, DISTRIBUTION, HNANCE IMPORTS FROM JAPAN — THE 1962 STORY: Japan's exports of consumer electronic products to U.S. were up sharply again in 1962, but further price erosion was apparent. The tables below were obtained through courtesy of McGraw-Hill's Electrical Merchandising Week, in whose issue of today (Feb. 11) they will appear. The first table, compiled by McGraw-Hill's Tokyo Bureau, shows 1962 vs. 1961 Japanese exports to U.S. in selected consumer items. The other tables, compiled by McGraw-Hill from U.S. customs figures, list U.S. imports from Japan, Hong Kong & Okinawa, Jgpan-to-U.S. export table shows transistor radios exceeding 10 million units, with multi-transistor sets up nearly 71%, while so-called "toy" radios (less than 3 transistors) dropped sharply to about the 1960 level — indicating maybe they've had their heyday (probably due to drop in price of multi-transistor sets). Only other category to show drop-off from 1961 is tube radio. TV tally shows surprising figure of 154,467 sets shipped to U.S., although it's believed that only about 130,000 had cleared U.S. customs before year's end (Vol. 3:4 plO). Transistor TV category, new in 1962, totaled approximately 40,000, almost all Sony 8 & 5-in. receivers. A look at average prices gives startling confirmation of abrasive effects of competition with U.S. manufactmers and between competing foreign set makers. Average billing price of transistor radio exported from Japan to U.S. last year was $9.19, down from $10.60 in 1961 and $13.27 in 1960, despite increase in more costly multi-band & deluxe sets. Toy radios dropped to $2.18 each from $2.58 in 1961 and $2.80 in 1960. Possibly because of increased proportion of FM sets, average cost of tube radio rose to $6.76 last year from 1961's $6.37, but was still below 1960's $7.12. Transistor TVs in 1962 averaged $85.59 each, while tube TVs come out to $44.60 (many were shipped without picture tube). Taking all TVs together, average price dropped to $54.70 last year from $74.20 in 1961, but increasing number of transistorized sets kept last year's figure above 1960's low of about $51. Average radio-phono price increased to $41.17 from $36.16 in 1961 and $32.10 in 1960. Here's McGraw-Hill's compilation of Japanese govt, export data: JAPANESE EXPORTS TO U.S. — 1962 vs. 1961 Item Units Dollars 1962 1961 % change 1962 1961 % change Total transistor radios ...10,520,756 9.328,842 -f 12.8% $77,506,263 $60,586,792 + 27.9% 3 or more transistors .. 7,784,590 4,554,383 -} 70.9% 71,550,286 48,285,048 + 48.2% "toy" radios ... 2,735,166 4,774,037 42.7% 5,955,977 12,301,744 51.3% Tube radios — ... 1,608,574 2,224,229 27.7% 10,882,397 14,174,786 23.2% Total TV tube TV .. transistor TV .. 154,467 _ 118,498 36,969 23,179 +564.4% 8,449,668 5,285,491 3,164,177 1,719,840 +391.3% Radio-phono 92,728 74,885 + 23.8% 3,816,319 2,708.662 + 40.9% U.S. Customs Dept, import figures differ from Japanese export statistics for several reasons: (1) Different classification systems (U.S. didn't have TV classification for all of last year, but reports 127,067 sets imported from Japan during 2nd half). (2) Transshipments from U.S. ports to Latin American & other coimtries are included in Japanese, but not U.S. figures. (3) Import figures don't reflect items in transit or in bonded warehouses. Here are Customs import figmes for '62 vs. '61 :