About a third of televisions sold across the world during the first quarter of the year were produced by South Korean firms, a report showed Sunday.

According to a report by the display market research firm DisplaySearch, Samsung Electronics sold 8.87 million flat panel televisions during the period taking 18.5 percent of the 47.9 million-unit global market. During the same period, LG Electronics sold about 6.76 million units to take a 14.1 percent market share, giving the two Korean firms a combined market share of 32.6 percent.

Compared to the same period last year, Samsung Electronics’ market share increased by 0.1 percentage point, while that of LG Electronics rose 1.5 percentage point.

In terms of ranking, Samsung Electronics maintained the top spot, and LG Electronics came in second.

For LG Electronics, the first three months of the year marked a return to second place after being pushed aside by Sony Corp. in the final quarter of last year.

The Korean company also retook the second position in terms of sales with $2.85 billion after a having lagged behind Sony for four quarters.

Sony’s sales for the period came in at $2.72 billion.

Taking 9.4 percent market share, Sony was the first quarter’s third-largest flat panel television maker.

The company was followed by Sharp Corp. with 7.1 percent. Fifth place was taken by Panasonic Corp. with 6.9 percent.

While the two Korean firms saw a year-on-year increase in market share, the three Japanese electronics makers’ market shares fell by up to 2 percentage points.

By product type, Samsung Electronics was the first quarter’s top manufacturer of light emitting diode televisions with 19.9 percent market share.

The overall market for LED televisions for the period came in at 15.7 million units, expanding nearly four fold compared to the first quarter of last year.

The second largest LED television market share was taken by Sharp with 10.9 percent. LG Electronics came in third in the market taking 10.7 percent market share.

Samsung Electronics was also the world’s largest 3D television maker taking 33.3 percent of the 2.12 million unit market.

The company, however, saw sales of its 3D televisions that use active-shutter glasses technology fall by about 130,000 units from the previous quarter, while sales of LG Electronics products that employ film pattern retarder technology to achieve three dimensional imaging went from 130,000 units to 170,000 units.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)