Global TV sales fall more than 6% on year in first half

LG Electronics OLED TVs are displayed at a retail shop in Seoul. [YONHAP]

Global television sales fell more than 6 percent from a year ago in the first half of this year on low demand and a multitude of economic and geopolitical uncertainties, according to market tracker Omdia on Tuesday.

By product category, the downturn primarily affected traditional liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs while the more advanced organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs maintained modest growth at 0.6 percent on year.

Samsung Electronics remained the top player in the TV segment, followed by LG Electronics.

In global markets, 92.6 million units of TVs were sold, down 6.6 percent from a year ago. By value, the decrease was sharper at 12.5 percent, according to Omdia.

Consumer electronics companies have been struggling to combat lackluster demand after two years of the pandemic-fueled surge in demand for personal devices and home appliances. The Ukraine-Russia war, runaway inflation and expensive borrowing costs all added to the woes.

By brand, Samsung took the top spot with a 31.5 percent market share, followed by LG Electronics at 17.4 percent, China's TCL Technology at 8.7 percent, Hisense, also a Chinese company, at 8.2 percent and Japan's Sony at 7.4 percent.

In the premium TV segment, in which TVs are priced at $2,500 or more, Samsung took up 53.6 percent of the global market, followed by LG at 21.5 percent and Sony at 17.2 percent.

Since 2017, more than 36.5 million units of Samsung's Neo QLED TVs, one of its premium products, have been sold, surpassing the 30 million mark in the first half.

In the meantime, LG kept its solid No. 1 spot in the OLED TV segment by selling 1.69 million units in the first half, about 62 percent of all global OLED shipments.

OLED TVs accounted for 33.2 percent of all TV sales by LG in the first half.

BY PARK EUN-JEE, YONHAP [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]