Audio Video News

Pioneer will stop manufacturing TVs and withdraw from the TV business altogether by 2010, according to a notice (PDF) that appeared today on the company's Japanese website. This confirms a report that surfaced in the Japanese business press a few days ago.

"The share market will take the loss forecast as a message that Pioneer cannot survive by itself. The consumer-electronics industry has now entered into the stage where a company on the brink of a cliff falls down," commented a Tokyo investment bank analyst to Bloomberg News.

The move is part of a restructuring effort that will cut 16 percent of the company's workforce. Pioneer has been losing money since 2004, the same year it purchased NEC's plasma operations. It will remain in home audio, car audio, DJ gear, and cable TV boxes. A Blu-ray player for cars may be among future products.

Reviewers have called Pioneer's plasma sets among the world's finest. Unfortunately that wasn't enough to keep the company's TV business afloat. Even after it began sourcing plasma panels from Panasonic and combined its LCD operations with Sharp's, Pioneer's TV wing still wasn't making it. It's a sad day for videophiles.