Audio Video News

Back when TVs were made in America, General Electric was one of the major brands. Following a half-decade absence, GE's TV brand will return to service in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2009 thanks to a partnership between the General Electric corporation and Tatung, a Taiwanese manufacturer.

Their joint venture is General Displays & Technologies (GDT). On board are Marc McConnaughey, formerly of ViewSonic, and Peter Weedfald, well known as Samsung's former sales and marketing docent (he's always had a way with words). Ownership of the joint venture will be split 51-49 percent in Tatung's favor.

Tatung will design and manufacture three LCD HDTV product lines: GX, DX, and TX. Features will include LED backlighting in top models, LCD backlighting in others, and internet connectivity, with the sets receiving content from GE subsidiary NBC. Also planned is a Blu-ray player with BD-Live.

It's been a long, strange trip for the GE TV brand. For a long time GE had a prominent role in TV manufacturing by and for Americans. In 1986, GE unexpectedly swallowed up RCA following the latter's unsuccessful dabbling in the stylus-read CED videodisc format. RCA was at the time a huge corporation which not only made TVs but also owned the NBC TV network, RCA Records, RCA Laboratories, and the RCA Building in New York's Rockefeller Plaza. GE broke up RCA and sold off the parts, including the TV operation, to the chagrin of many longtime RCA employees.

Both the GE and RCA TV brands were then licensed to Thomson, a French corporation. Thomson marketed them for many years, concentrating on the RCA brand, but eventually spun off its TV operations in 2003 to TCL, its Chinese manufacturing partner. Thomson gave up its license to make GE TVs in 2004. General Electric, still one of America's biggest and most diverse corporations, then began looking for a new manufacturing partner, culminating in the deal with Tatung.

Pic courtesy of decoradios.com.