Samsung, LG make over two-thirds of premium TVs sold worldwide

More than three in five premium TVs sold worldwide are made by either Samsung Electronics Co. or LG Electronics Inc. – a decent feat that helps the two South Korean home appliance giants retain their market leadership.

According to London-based market tracker Omdia on Tuesday, Samsung accounted for 51.1%, in value terms, of the premium segment, where TVs are priced at $2,500 or higher, in the first nine months of the year. LG came in second with a 21.2% market share.

Combined, the two Korean companies controlled 72.3% of the premium market, followed by Japan’s Sony (20.3%).

In the 75-inch and larger-size TV segment, Samsung controlled 37.5% of the market, followed by LG with a 16.2% share, Sony (13.2%), China’s TCL Technology (10%) and Chinese multinational home appliance group Hisense (9%).

Samsung’s strong performance was helped by robust sales of its quantum light-emitting diode (QLED) TVs. The company sold 6.72 million QLED TVs in the first three quarters, accounting for over 70% of the segment, which saw an 8% on-year increase to 9.14 million units.

In the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV segment, which saw global shipments of 4.3 million units in the January-September period, similar to last year’s levels, LG was the top vendor with 2.55 million units.

LG is the world’s largest manufacturer of OLED TVs with a market share of over 60%, although crosstown rival Samsung is the dominant player in the overall TV market.

LG has sold 14 million OLED TVs in total through the end of September since its first global launch in 2013. The company expects to sell over 15 million units by year-end.

OVERALL TV MARKET SHRINKS ON ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN

Overall, Samsung retained its top TV player status with 30.2% market share in value terms in the first nine months of the year, followed by LG (17%), TCL (9.3%), Hisense (8.6%) and Sony (8%).

In terms of volume, Samsung took 20.2% of the overall TV market, , followed by LG (12%), TCL (11.7%), Hisense (10.1%) and Xiaomi (6.5%).

If the trend continues through to the end of the year, Samsung will retain its market dominance for the 17th straight year in 2022.

Meanwhile, the global TV market shrank to $72.39 billion as of the end of September, down 12.7% from $82.93 billion a year earlier.

In volume terms, global TV shipments fell 4.4% on-year to 143 million units, Omdia data showed.

Write to Sungsu Bae at baebae@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.