The TV market in Australia is saturated after consumers spent up big during COVID and into 2022, on a new generation of smart TV’s and because they were not spending on travel or restaurants, many invested in a new generation of premium TV which has led to a slow down in the TV market in 2023.
Last night Samsung officially rolled out their 2023 range which now includes an OLED model, while also trying to clear out older models.
According to Jeremy Senior the Vice President of Consumer at Samsung Australia “There is a lot of activity to clear out 2022 TV’s to ensure that we can launch our 2023 range. At this stage we are happy with our inventory position”.
The lack of sell through is proving difficult for several brands who ordered stock back in early 2022 when the market was according to one major TV supplier.
Jeremyb Senior at CES 2023
During the past two weeks one major TV retailer ran a 20% off promotion on Samsung TV’s but despite the offer sales were slow.
This year is different for Samsung with the South Korean Company moving to take on LG Electronics with an OLED TV offering.
For 10 years LG Electronics has dominated in the OLED TV market as they were one of the few Companies able to manufacture OLED panels resulting in several brands buying their OLED panel from LG.
“It’s clear the TV market is tougher this year than it has been in the past. What we have seen is that consumers are still buying when there is a compelling reason to upgrade or buy a new TV”.
According to Senior one reason is the growth in content streaming with consumers moving to TV’s with “better management systems” similar to what Samsung is offering.
“They also want a TV with a better processor and a new generation display technology”.
During last nights briefing it was hard to differentiate between OLED and Samsung’s NEO QLED TV’s.
One point of difference was Samsung range of 8K TV’s.
After CES 2023, it appears that Samsung is one of the few brands to be selling 8K TV’s with several brands ditching the technology due in part to a lack of 8K content.
According to Senior “If you want to have a big screen you want to have the best picture quality. Yes, content has been an issue and is an issue but what we deliver is the ability to upscale 4K content to 8K”.
“It would be great if there is more 8K content out there” he said.
Senior admits that lead times between the purchase of a new TV is changing. In the past it was between five and seven years.
“Today as more streaming content becomes available and consumers want the latest technology built into their TV’s to experience the quality of the content. This has led to a shortening of the time between an upgrade to a new TV. Today consumers want to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and that’s what Samsung is delivering” he said.
