Premium TV Strategy Pays Off

Samsung Electronics maintained its top position in the global TV market with a 29-percent market share, beating LG Electronics (17.5 percent) and Sony of Japan (9.7 percent).

 

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, Korea’s two leading electronics companies, jointly accounted for half of the global TV market in the first half of the year, according to a report released by market researcher IHS Markit.

The two electronics giants could outperform their Japanese and Chinese competitors by boldly employing a premium TV strategy. In particular, Samsung Electronics maintained its leading position in the TV market for 48 consecutive quarters, by putting up a good fight in the ultra-high-definition and super-large TV market.

According to the IHS Markit survey, worldwide TV shipments in the first half of this year totaled 99,044,000 units, up 7.9% from 91,760,000 units in the same period of last year.

The market researcher said the increase was attributable to marketing competition mainly among major TV companies for this year’s major sports events such as the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, the FIFA World Cup Russia and the Jakarta Palembang Asian Games.

Samsung Electronics maintained its top position with a 29-percent market share, beating LG Electronics (17.5 percent) and Sony of Japan (9.7 percent). The top three were followed by China's Hisense (5.7 percent) and TCL (5.6 percent).


In particular, Samsung Electronics ranked first for 48 consecutive quarters since the third quarter of 2006 by recording a 29.6% market share in the second quarter of this year. Its second-quarter market share is the highest quarterly market share since the fourth quarter of 2014 (30.4%).

The combined market share of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics reached 46.5%, nearly half of the entire market, and a big jump from 41.6% in 2016 and 41.1% last year.

This is a contrast to the fact that Samsung’s and LG’s competitors such as Sony, Hisense and TCL all recorded a slight decline in market share in the first half of the year.

In terms of shipments, Samsung Electronics accounted for only 19.1% of the market, but it accounted for 43.8% of the premium market for TVs worth US$2,500 or higher per unit, and 57.9% of the super-large TV market of 75-inch or larger models, further widening the gap with Sony and LG. In addition, by regions, its share in the North American TV market regarded as a "barometer" of market shares in the TV market, arrived at a whopping 54.2%.

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