Corporate History

The set-top box and 56-inch wide-projection television set released in the US

As television broadcasts around the world went digital and the related market saw the emergence of large changes, Panasonic threw Groupwide resources into our approach to the digital television systems business.

In October 1997, the Group-Wide Digital TV System Committee, with President Morishita as its chair, initiated a strategic effort at getting the business off the ground by 1999. This plan had at its core the two projects of “Information Strategies” and “Intellectual Property Strategies,” as well as two development projects in “Platform” and “Broadcast Station Systems.”

Under these circumstances, in October 1998 we got the jump on the rest of the industry by releasing digital television sets and reception adapters (set-top boxes) compatible with all 18 digital terrestrial broadcast formats to coincide with the start of digital terrestrial broadcasts in the US. In Europe, we released set-top boxes compatible with the interactive digital satellite broadcasting of UK's BIB.

Furthermore, in Japan, in anticipation of the start of BS digital broadcasting in December 2000, in September 2000 we released BS digital HD television sets fully compatible with digital HD broadcasts and data broadcasts.