industry comment: television
Television: spent force or bright future? T
Demand for large screen viewing is not going away and picture performance continues to provide reasons to upgrade, writes techUK market engagement and membership director Paul Hide
he television set has been part of the electrical retailers’ portfolio for over 80 years since the launch of
TV in the UK in 1936. Back then a retailer would have sold you a
new 12in black and white TV for £70; that’s the equivalent of £3,500 today. Of course, prices have dropped dramatically and the market has grown to around six million sets a year, a level that has remained consistent over the past 20 years apart from a spike of 10 million sets per year during the switch from analogue to digital television in the mid-2000s. You might think that as we move closer to celebrating the 100th anniversary of the launch of the television set the world will move on and content consumption will all be via small portable screens, virtual reality headsets or hologram-like images for a watch anywhere, any size experience. Yes, alternative viewing solutions will grow, however, there is no evidence that the global home viewers’ appetite for large screen TVs is diminishing. Global volumes are growing, with 270 million units predicted in 2017, with a value of $105 billion. It is the size of this prize that is driving continual innovation and investment in the core TV market from the global brands and OEM players. This is great news for us as viewers and retailers as there are great reasons to upgrade a TV to a model with better picture quality and more screen inches in a smaller overall footprint. Just about every 40in-plus TV available in 2017 will have 4K/UHD capability and many have the improved High Dynamic Range
(HDR) and Wide Colour Gamut (WCG). Once you add improvements to the picture in terms of greater contrast, delivering pure blacks and more lifelike colours, such as the ability to reproduce rich deep pillar box reds, then you have a picture upgrade that is both noticeable in its relative improvement and impactful whatever the screen size. This standards debate has raged within the European Broadcasting Union and other international standards bodies for some time and finally we appear to have consensus and a confirmed pan-industry specification.
The competition
between competing display technologies will be an interesting one to watch
A unified specification will result in
focus from content, delivery and device manufacturers bringing additional content and services to market. Marketed under the ‘Ultra HD Premium’ moniker we can hopefully consign descriptors such as ‘4K’, which means little to a consumer, to history. The competition between competing display
technologies will also be an interesting one to watch over the next two to three years. LG is backing OLED technology in a big way. This organic display substrate allows an incredibly thin TV to be produced displaying very rich colour and contrast levels. Vestel, a major manufacturer of OEM product as well as now
owning the Toshiba TV brand in the UK, is offering OLED models at the premium end of their line-up for all its customers and own brands. Samsung is
focusing on its new QLED Quantum Dot technology. Samsung claims significant picture quality improvements over previous LED TVs and the sets visibly perform superbly. Sony and Panasonic are hedging their bets with both LED and OLED offerings at the premium end. Whilst picture quality remains the core focus, sound quality improvements are also evident. LG, Samsung and Sony offer Dolby ATMOS products either through built-in sound bars or separate AV components. The surround sound impact of this Dolby ATMOS is demonstrably fantastic, especially when run as a 2.1 front only speaker system (sound bar and subwoofer). With added complexity comes a requirement
to improve user interfaces (UIs). Manufacturers are investing in UIs that focus on ease of use and multi device and service connectivity. Voice control is a fast-growing sector in all areas of consumer electricals and systems such as Amazon’s Alexa are fast becoming ubiquitous on CE devices as well as appearing in many in-car driver control systems.
If you thought that
televisions had reached the end of their evolutionary road, then think again
The increasing level of investment in the TV
sector demonstrates renewed confidence in the opportunities, with most new models likely to secure price premiums over outgoing ranges, admittedly enhanced by the devaluation of Sterling, but nonetheless something that is not often the case in this consumer technology. If you thought that televisions had reached the end of their evolutionary road, then think again. There are some superb new products available this year that take the already high levels of picture and sound quality all the way up to 11 and beyond. The market remains huge and growing with prices on the up. It’s not time to ditch TVs from your portfolio yet. Are you getting your share?
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www.innovativeelectricalretailing.co.uk April 2017
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