EXCLUSIVE: Hisense World Cup Investment A Flop As Bitter Battle Looms In TV Market

It was supposed to be the event that parachuted Hisense into global markets, but the 2018 World Cup in Russia which the Company paid tens of millions to sponsor, appears to have been a flop according to retailers in Europe where the national sport of many Countries is soccer.

According to UK retailers’ sales of Hisense TV’s did not increase as expected however Hisense did score one scoop the back page of the Argus catalogue in the UK. The same happened in Australia with Harvey Norman franchisees telling ChannelNews that there “was little if any lift in sales of Hisense TV’s” during the 2018 World Cup which thousands of Australians watched on mobile devices including tablets, notebooks and smartphones.

Highly prized and owned by a key competitor for the past five years Hisense is believed to have forked out hundreds of thousands of pounds to secure the back page.

In Australia the Chinese brand that is struggling in markets such as Europe, and the USA has recently purchased the rights to Toshiba TV’s after consumers rejected Hisense made TV’s.

In Australia the brand has also been hit with slowing sales with arch rival TCL now ranged by retailers.
According to sources both The Good Guys and JB Hi Fi are witnessing significant increases in sales of TCL TV’s along with models from Philips and Hitachi.

ChannelNews understands that the Panasonic TV brand is struggling with one major retailer believed to be looking at whether they range the Panasonic OLD TV’s in the future.

Also, under pressure due to stock shortages is Sony with Harvey Norman executives claiming that the shortages have seen people switch to Samsung and LG TV’s.

ChannelNews has also been told that retailers and a local distributor have been approached to sell Skyworks or Metz TV’s in Australia.

Currently Skyworks has the rights and manufactures the Toshiba TV brand which is sold via Powermove in Australia.

Skyworks who will lose the rights to the Toshiba brand after Hisense acquired the rights to the Japanese brand last year have been told by two distributors and retailers that neither brand will work in Australia and that the Australian TV market is “cluttered with brands”.

Two TV brands that are proving to be popular are Hitachi and Philips with recent shipments of Philips TV’s stripping market share away from Hisense who spent last year discounting their TV’s to grow share and then lifting prices significantly in 2018.

About Post Author

David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.