ANALYSIS: SMART TV Home Entertainment


June/July 2023 ertonline.co.uk


Loewe is as ‘smart’ as any other. Our retailers have the opportunity to sell a customer up to Loewe, and make a healthy retained margin. They can talk about our 100-year heritage and our award-winning design; we have a great story, and the discerning customer will appreciate something different...”


A saturated market


Faced with smart TV platform ambivalence, Omdia’s David Tett suggests retailers should showcase gaming and content functionality. “Smart TV has become saturated as


22


Samsung TVs have a Gaming Hub (pictured above) which


groups together relevant


services, such as Twitch and cloud games. If the consumer is an avid gamer, then these embellishments, along with 4K 120Hz HDMI support, could be just the reason they need a premium TV replacement. And there’s 144Hz Game Mode Pro


which offers eye-popping technology and connectivity to give players the winning gaming formula with the U7 Series TV from Hisense – now available in up to 100-inch screen sizes. Matt Glynn, Product Manager at Hisense UK, explains to ERT: “The U7 has been significantly upgraded for 2023. The newly-added Mini- LED technology increases the dimming zones in comparison to last year’s models by more than a factor of 10!


“It combines Mini-LED HDR 1000, Quantum Dot technology and a total HDR solution, including Dolby Vision, to deliver the most detailed, lifelike and vivid images for consumers. In addition to these breakthrough


Samsung’s Game Bar VIDAA


picture developments, the U7 also boasts powerful and immersive sound with a 2.1 channel speaker system and a built-in subwoofer.”


Faced with smart TV ubiquity, exactly what will inspire a sale? Alan Whyte, Managing Director of Loewe Technology UK, says that from a retailer’s perspective, it’s down to a distinct point of difference.


“Many TVs have become homogenised, both in terms of look and feel. With the fight for market share in the balance, every penny is a prisoner and so considerations must be made from materials to components. As Loewe is not engaging in that bun fight, we can concentrate on the things we do well, and our customers appreciate the tangible differences that justify our premium positioning,” he tells ERT. “Better components mean better performance, but spending that little bit more will also give you longevity,” he goes on. “A TV shouldn’t be a throwaway product. With the recent introduction of apps such as Apple TV+,


consumers have replaced the primary home TV with a smart enabled set and the prevalence of many-TV-households (those owning up to five TVs) is starting to fall thanks to mobile/tablet viewing for convenience. 8K won’t be a driver for growth due to the limited screen sizes, huge associated price tags and, importantly, the barren content landscape. TV vendors are looking to drive growth and replacement with expanded offerings – like cloud gaming services, new screen technologies, like QD- QLED, and improved and expanded software experiences with the addition of native FAST services being built into many OS.” As for the future for smart TV platforms,


they’re increasingly becoming a primary revenue source for TV vendors, he says. “For many smart TV manufacturers, hardware


revenue has been replaced by a software revenue focus and to maximise these the platforms will have to keep improving, especially given the ease at which a consumer can instead use a Pay TV or media streaming device to circumvent the smart TV platform, losing the likes of Samsung and LG revenue opportunities. Mr Tett adds: “We have seen in


recent


years Tizen and webOS become more active in licensing their platforms to third-parties to boost advertising and data collection and compete in areas of the market Samsung and LG themselves may not be so interested in entering directly. “Content and discoverability will always be key for consumers as people will gravitate to the easiest experience for them to get to watch what they want, as quickly as they can.” Ultimately, it’s down to retailers to help navigate buyers through this fast-evolving smart TV jungle. Some things, it seems, never change.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36