Audio Video News

Pioneer has licensed its Elite brand to Sharp as a prelude to the joint marketing of Elite-branded LCD TVs.

Historically the brand has applied to all of Pioneer's higher-end products, including plasma TVs, audio/video receivers, Blu-ray players, and speakers. For instance, Pioneer maintains two receiver lines, called Pioneer and Pioneer Elite. The deal with Sharp covers only TVs, and will allow Sharp to introduce a line of high-end Elite-brand LCD TVs this year in North America.

For Sharp, the Elite badge will offer an advantage in the marketing of high-end sets, which it will do through Pioneer's dealer network. For Pioneer, it will complement other Elite products, now that the company's own highly regarded Kuro plasma line has been discontinued. Pioneer licensed its plasma technology to Panasonic last year.

As pointed out in TWICE, Sharp owns a piece of Pioneer.

Incidentally, the logo shown here is a mishmash created for this story. What the new Sharp Elite logo will look like was unknown at presstime.

See Sharp press release.