LCD TV sales inch up over 2016
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 03 February 2017

Strong sales in North American distribution channels during the busy holiday season, increasing affordability and a robust market in China have come to the rescue of an otherwise stagnant LCD market.

According to leading TV analyst WitsView, overall global shipments of LCD TV sets for 2016 increased just 1.6% annually to reach 219.2 million units, with the top five TV brands by sales being Samsung, LG Electronics (LGE), Hisense, TCL and Sony.

South Korea’s two leading manufacturers again took first and second in the annual ranking with 47.9 million and 28.2 million TV sets shipped, respectively. Yet Samsung’s TV set shipments were affected by the earthquake in southern Taiwan in February 2016 and issues that its in-house supplier Samsung Display (SDC) had with the adoption of Black Column Spacer (BCS) technology. For its part, LGE registered a 4.1% annual decline in its shipments mainly because of the change in the brand’s strategic priority. After the reorganisation of the group at the beginning of 2016, LGE shifted its focus from expanding shipments to raising product margins and controlling its inventory level.

“Samsung posted flat annual growth for 2016 as it experienced shortages for mid-size panels through the year,” said WitsView research manager Ricky Lin. “As Samsung and other TV brands competed for panel supply and switched to products belonging larger size segments, the average size of LCD TV sets also grew larger than originally anticipated for 2016.”

Lin also pointed out that large-size TV sets for the high-end segment will remain central to Sony’s strategy in 2017 with the Japanese brand set to introduce OLED TVs with advanced in-house video and audio technologies spearheading a major campaign in the high-end market.

Going into 2017, WitsView expects TV makers will increasingly focus on developing and promoting higher margin products such as models featuring huge 4K/OLED displays. Consequently, it forecasts that the average size of TV sets will expand significantly as well. Overall it calculates that global LCD TV shipments for 2017 will be around 225 million units, an increase of 2.6% compared with 2016. Models sized 50” and larger will likely make up nearly 30% of total shipments for this year, while the share of Ultra HD-resolution products in total shipments should reach 31.5%. The high-end segment will also likely be a highly contest area for major brands such as Samsung has recently launched Quantum Dot (QDTV) competing with against LGE’s OLED products.