television


(high quality in both story telling and production as a result of ever increasing budgets), increasing choice thanks to the focus on long form video content from global Pay-Per-View players, and increasing opportunities for a more immersive and impactful viewing experience thanks to larger screen sizes and higher quality image and sound reproduction. We’ve never had it so good in terms of choice and quality. Netflix is forecast to spend a massive $13 billion on content in 2019; compare that to the BBC’s spend of £1.5 billion and ITV’s of £1 billion in 2018 and you get a sense of just how big and powerful Netflix are on the global stage. Netflix and Amazon now claim over 10 million subscribers to their services in the UK, not far behind the reach of UK giant Sky, incentivising viewers to consider regular upgrades to their home AV systems. Many viewers now pay more in annual content subscription and licence fees than the cost of a new premium 50”+ Television, which surely helps close the sale when comparing the low relative cost of the viewing device over its life versus the cost of the content?


Retailers should look at


how a focus on the added value opportunities can enhance their overall customer offer


Producers now view the quality of


reproduction as highly as they view the quality of the story. The availability of superb quality productions combined with the digital distribution platforms that can deliver live streamed high band content into homes has encouraged television manufacturers to continue to invest heavily in continued picture and sound quality improvements. Every year, when I see the latest models on demonstration, I think that perhaps television has reached its zenith, a plateau of development and quality, and then, every year I am proved wrong as the latest models deliver noticeable improvements. Manufacturers are incentivised to continue


to invest as they know the market is healthy and is forecast to stay that way. Consumers rarely wait until their TV stops working to purchase as the pace of improvement and ‘more for less’ market pricing, encourages a replacement cycle that is far faster than the working life of a device. Premium television prices are increasing and


margins, whilst tough, are no worse than the average across the sector. Television remains a product that nearly every household, every person living in the UK, interacts with on a daily basis. Millions of consumers every year need to go somewhere to research their future purchases so why would any electrical retailer


April 2019


Less than 4% of the 27 million UK homes do not possess a large screen television according to BARB data


choose to exclude one of the largest and most active sectors in the market? The fierce competition between global


players continues to drive innovation. As design become less of a differentiating factor, superb picture performance though both OLED and QLED screen technologies has become a platform on which to deliver constant innovation. Voice control and AI features support simpler device control along with an intelligent learning capability, allowing the television to help the user identify and select content of interest to them based on historical viewing preferences. Televisions of today are increasingly able


to adjust their settings automatically to render the best picture and sound quality for any source, relative to the ambient viewing environment. In just a few years we have moved from highly capable, if largely inflexible devices to ones that deliver unbelievable image rendering with an absolute minimum requirement from the user to set up and adjust. With the already superb UHD image


quality, many are asking “What is the point of 8K image resolution, surely 4K is enough for any television”. If we apply 8K image resolution to today’s typical home set-up, considering viewing distance and screen sizes it is perhaps fair to say that 8k is unlikely to offer a benefit to the majority. Even 4K resolution needs a 60” plus screen size viewed up close to really deliver a difference in image quality. The major quality improvements from today’s 4K TVs come from High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Wide Colour Gamut (WCG), technologies that deliver benefits whatever the pixel resolution capabilities. However, and as we have seen from the


journey of SD to HD to 4K UHD, improved image rendering, and quality, opens up possibilities and incentives to continually re-invent the television. 8K opens up new possibilities; advances in production, screens that can be the size of a wall, superb detail


when up close and a marketing story that helps keep the large screen TV format very much alive and kicking and front of the mind for viewers. At CES2019, 8k TVs were positioned by the


majority of the leading CE brands as the next iteration of leading edge viewing technology. Whilst sales of these TVs, which command a sizeable premium over 4K, are expected to be very low this year, the narrative provides clear evidence of a healthy future for global TV sales, based on constant innovation, demonstrable improvements in picture and sound quality and the drive from manufacturers to grow share and reach the coveted No.1 market share position. TV remains, by a long way, the largest value contributor of any consumer electronics sector. Device performance and complexity is


increasing. The Connected Home market is now gaining traction. Consumer interest in bespoke home solutions is growing. If you look at the television market as a commodity sector, a box shifting exercise with no added value then it is easy to understand why many electrical retailers have given up on this sector. However, if you consider it as the most dynamic of any CE product sector in terms of innovation, brand investment, market resilience and consumer appetite for spend then, perhaps, more retailers would or should look at how a focus on the added value opportunities can enhance their overall customer offer. We are most definitely in a Golden Age for


television, the best content, the best choice, the best technology and the best value. Our love affair with television is as strong as ever. Millennials are being engaged in television through both long and short from content delivered over IP and Baby Boomers continue to view several hours of linear broadcast content every day. Television really does offer something for


everyone. That includes electrical retailers. Think about it.


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