Sharp Quattron TVs to get Pioneer Elite branding

Sharp and Pioneer have announced that they will jointly be resurrecting the Eite brand of TVs for the American market.

Elite was known in AV circles as being one of the top TV brands around, but this came to an end in March 2010, when Pioneer stopped making televisions and in the process waved goodbye to both Elite and Kuro branding.

But now Elite is back and will be the name of a new line-up of Sharp Quattron TVs which both companies hope will become part of the lucrative custom install market.

High-end brand

"As a leader in large-screen LCD TVs, we are excited to collaborate with Pioneer to bring a high-end LCD TV to the Elite consumer," explained John Herrington, Sharp's president of marketing in the US.

"The Elite brand is highly respected in the high-end market, and Sharp can deliver the quality and innovation that Elite customers demand."

It will be interesting how well received the new line of TVs will be. For a start, Pioneer is synonymous with plasma technology, so seeing the Elite branding on an LED TV may irk some.

And then there's the fact that neither Pioneer or Sharp will have their names on the sets, they will simply be called Elite.

What this news does mean, though, is that there could be a slim chance that the Kuro brand may well be next to be dusted down.

Via CrunchGear

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.