Thomson TVs… Many of us still remember these devices that stood in living rooms in the 90s and early 2000s. The French manufacturer was considered one of the leaders in the consumer electronics industry and a symbol of quality. However, today this once famous brand has practically disappeared from stores. What happened to the company? Let's try to figure it out, informs Ukr.Media.
Company history
Thomson's story begins in 1879, the same year that Thomas Edison tested his famous incandescent light bulb. In the United States, inventors Elijah Thomson and Edwin Houston founded the Thomson-Houston Electric Company.
In 1892, the American Thomson-Houston Electric merged with Edison's company, forming the famous General Electric, which exists to this day. And already in 1893, the Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH) was created in France as a result of cooperation between the newly formed General Electric and French investors. It was this French company that became the predecessor of the modern Thomson. The first decades of its existence, CFTH devoted itself to the electrification of France and the production of lighting systems, gradually developing its own path independently of its American partners.
After World War I, where the company produced radio equipment for the army, Thomson became actively involved in peaceful radio technology. By the 1930s, Thomson radios were already playing in the homes of ordinary French people.
After World War II, the company was partially nationalized by the French government. This proved to be a boon, as government orders poured in, allowing Thomson to expand rapidly. In the 1950s, the company entered the television market, which soon became its main focus in the consumer electronics sector.
The golden hour of French electronics came in the 1960s with the development of the SECAM color television system. Although the main work was carried out in the laboratories of the French Television Company (Compagnie Française de Télévision) under the leadership of engineer Henri de France, Thomson, as a leading manufacturer of television equipment, actively participated in the development and implementation of this technology. The company was the first to launch mass production of televisions fully compatible with the new standard. In 1967, the SECAM system was officially adopted in France, and then in the USSR and many other countries. This was not just a technical victory, but also a political success for France.
Later, through the acquisition of various companies, Thomson acquired important technologies related to all three major color television standards. The company not only worked on the SECAM system, but also acquired valuable technical solutions for the PAL standards (by buying the German company Telefunken) and NTSC (by buying the American RCA). These standards themselves could not be owned by anyone, but Thomson owned many key patents and developments, which gave the company a serious advantage in the world television market.
A great success for Thomson was the acquisition of the consumer electronics division of the American RCA in 1988. This deal opened the door for Thomson to the huge American market.
In 1995, the French government split the company into two separate entities. The military-industrial division became Thomson-CSF (later to become the successful Thales), while the consumer electronics and media technology division was spun off into Thomson Multimedia. Thomson Multimedia, which made televisions and other home appliances, continued to struggle, while the defense division continued to thrive.
Thomson
When the Iron Curtain fell in the early 1990s, Thomson was one of the first Western companies to rush into the open market of the USSR. For millions of people who had dreamed of foreign technology for decades, French televisions became a symbol of a new era.
The marketing strategy was simple and effective: Thomson TVs were positioned as a “European alternative” to Asian brands. They attracted consumers who valued European quality but were not willing to pay more for Philips.
The key advantage was compatibility with the SECAM system used in the USSR. Thomson TVs, originally designed for this standard, showed good picture quality without additional converters. Salesmen skillfully used the argument: “Who knows the system better than the French, which they themselves invented for us?”.
By the mid-1990s, Thomson controlled about 15% of the TV market in the USSR. In addition to TVs, Thomson's VCRs, music systems, and the first DVD players were popular.
What's up with the Thomson brand?
But problems soon arose. Thomson had relied too long on traditional cathode ray tube TVs, underestimating the speed of the market's transition to flat screens. When Samsung, LG, and Sony began mass-producing LCD TVs, Thomson was unprepared for this revolution.
The second major problem was price competition. Manufacturing in France was much more expensive than in Asia. Thomson tried to move factories to China and Eastern Europe, but it was too late.
By 2004, Thomson's financial situation was deteriorating. In January, it sold its television production division to the Chinese company TCL for 230 million euros, as well as the rights to use the brand.
In 2010, Thomson changed its name to Technicolor, rebranding in honor of its subsidiary. This was not a random choice. Back in 2000, Thomson acquired the legendary American company Technicolor, which became famous for creating one of the first successful color cinema technologies. The Technicolor name had enormous value in the film industry and commanded the respect of professionals around the world.
However, in 2020, during the pandemic, Technicolor declared bankruptcy and was forced to undergo a major restructuring. In 2022, the company was renamed Vantiva, and its visual effects division was spun off into a separate organization.
Today, all that remains of the once great Thomson is a brand, the rights to which belong to different companies in different countries. TCL produces Thomson TVs and other home appliances. But there is nothing French about these devices anymore.
