The price is down, the structure is upward, and China's color TV market has entered the era of large screen high-end

The loose supply of panels has led to a decline in the price of color TVs, and the consumer market has ushered in a positive situation. Coupled with the benefits of the ultra-high-definition industry and the promotion of sports events such as the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Qatar World Cup, the size, structure and technology of the color TV market will be accelerated and upgraded in 2022. TV brands have firmly entered the era of large screens, and high-end products such as Mini LED and 8K have come out of the "steep" growth curve.

Panel price cuts bring good to the consumer market

After experiencing a sharp rise from 2020 to 2021, LCD panel prices ushered in a continuous decline in 2022, and the decline in the first quarter gradually narrowed.

In the first half of 2022, due to the G10.5 and G8.6 generation new lines still continuing to climb, it is expected that the global LCD TV panel production capacity area will show a significant recovery trend year-on-year, of which the first quarter increased by 4.1% year-on-year, the supply area in the second quarter will increase by 6.2% year-on-year, and the production capacity will remain at a high level. According to Sigmaintell data, in the first quarter of 2022, the price of medium and large LCD panels of 50 inches and above fell by 10% to 12%. In the second quarter of this year, the panel factory did not adjust the utilization rate, the supply-demand ratio was 5.6%, and the balance between supply and demand tended to be loose, driving the LCD TV panel price to stop falling back to stability in the second quarter.

In the last panel price increase cycle, the sharp rise in lcd TV panel prices has seriously squeezed the profit margins of TV brands. Zhang Hong, research director of the TV division of Sigmaintell, told reporters that considering the impact of the panel stocking cycle factor, the proportion of the mainstream size panel price compared to the average retail price of the terminal is high, and the brand profit is facing severe challenges, until the fourth quarter of 2021. Among them, large panels such as 55 inches and 65 inches will begin to recover profits by the second quarter of 2022.

The decline in panel costs is expected to promote terminal brands to increase promotional efforts and bring benefits to consumers. According to Aowei Cloud Network data, since November 2021, in the online market, the average price of color TVs has declined for four consecutive months, from 2810 yuan to 2213 yuan. In the offline market, the average price gradually dropped from 6129 yuan to 4957 yuan.

At present, the second quarter of the domestic sales "6 18" stocking started, at the same time, as the panel price fell to a relatively low level, it is expected that TV manufacturers will launch strategic stocking in anticipation of demand recovery.

Color TVs over 80 inches have become profitable highlands

In 2021, the retail volume of China's color TV market declined, large-size color TVs grew against the trend, and the retail volume of products 65 inches and above accounted for 34.5%, an increase of 9.5% over last year. With the market's acceptance of large-screen models such as 65 inches and 75 inches, many color TV companies are scrambling to launch new products that are also constantly breaking through larger screen sizes. From the new models on CES 2022, it can be seen that the process of color TV large screen is accelerating, such as Sony's 85/75-inch MiniLED backlit TV, Hisense's world's first 120-inch laser TV, Samsung's 110/101/89-inch MicroLED TV, LG's 136-inch 4K HDR MicroLED TV, TCL's world's first 98-inch ultra-large screen QD-MiniLED TV and other new products.

According to Aowei Cloud Network data, in 2021, the new products with large screens of 75 inches and above in China's color TV market accounted for 28.3% of the total number of new products, an increase of 11.3% year-on-year. The brand increases the supply of large-size models, so that the color TV continues to optimize to the large screen, which will accelerate the adjustment and upgrading of the size structure of China's color TV market to the large screen in 2022.

In February 2022, in the online market, the retail sales of 65-inch color TVs accounted for the largest proportion, reaching 27%; Retail sales of color TVs over 75 inches accounted for 5.6%, an increase of 2.2% year-on-year. In the offline market, the retail sales of 65-inch color TVs accounted for 29.5%, and the retail sales of color TVs over 75 inches accounted for 17.9%, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year.

GfK Zhongyikang told reporters that it is expected that 65 inches will become the first size in 2022, and the 75 inches share will sit at more than 10%. Aowei Cloud Network also expects that the product line of more than 80 inches will be more perfect and become a profit highland chased by color TV companies. In 2022, the average size of China's color TV market will reach 55.9 inches, an increase of 1.5 inches over 2021.

Liu Haijiao, research manager of the consumer electronics division of Aowei Cloud Network (AVC), told reporters that consumption upgrades, panel expansion to enhance the price advantage of large-size color TVs, and brand core strategies to help expand the large-size market are conducive to the popularization of the color TV market of more than 80 inches.

Specifically, in 2022, the panel factory actively lays out large size, boe Wuhan 10.5 generation line, Huaxing optoelectronics Shenzhen 11 generation line, Huike Mianyang 8.6 generation line / Changsha 8.6 generation line continues to expand production capacity, so that the supply of 80 inches and above panels form a guarantee. In 2022, the panel price correction and cost pressure will reduce, which will make the price of color TV oversized TV more and more close to the people, and continue to promote the market share growth of large-size color TV. On the other hand, in the change of panel prices, the large-sized panel has a smaller change than the small and medium-sized size, and the large-size TV has a more cost-effective advantage.

In terms of brands, driven by the wave of panel price increases that lasted for one year, color TV companies accelerated their strategic adjustments, shifting from price wars to value wars, making the trend of large size in China's color TV market more obvious. In 2021, new products with new 80 inches and above in China's color TV market accounted for 10.3% of the total number of new products, an increase of 4.9% year-on-year.

Shipments of 8K/MiniLED TVs will double

According to the data, from January to November 2021, the product scale of new technologies (lasers, OLED, MiniLED, quantum dots) in China's color TV market was 1.62 million units, an increase of 29.7% over the same period. As the development trend of color TV products, new technologies have huge market potential, and improving technological maturity and reducing mass production costs will be the direction of continuous efforts in the future.

GfK Zhongyikang told reporters that from the perspective of products equipped with different technologies, in 2021, the total amount of China's OLED TV market did not increase significantly, and 8K products maintained steady growth, from 51,000 units in 2020 to 71,000 units, an increase of 39.2% in 2021. According to the statistics of Aowei Cloud Network, the size of China's 8K TV market in 2020 and 2021 will be 65,000 units and 76,000 units respectively.

At CES 2022, Hisense launched the world's first 8K laser display solution, leading laser display into the 8K era; Sony launched the 8K MiniLED TV Z9K; TCL launches 8K MIniLED TV; Samsung launches an 8K Neo QLED TV. Based on the policy guidance of the "Ultra-HIGH-definition Video Industry Development Action Plan (2019-2022)", the construction and improvement of the 8K industry chain and the actual demand of consumers for high-quality displays, various brand manufacturers regard ultra-high-definition technology as an essential option for new products, thereby promoting the transition of mainstream resolution from 4K to 8K.

In March this year, Hisense 8K ULED TV U79H-MAX was released, and the price of 65 inches was 8999 yuan, which lowered the starting price of 8K TV to less than 10,000 yuan. Aowei Cloud Network expects that driven by sports events such as the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Qatar World Cup, the size of China's 8K TV market will reach 150,000 units in 2022, doubling year-on-year.

MiniLED has entered a stage of rapid development, but the product line still needs to be enriched. Sony, Samsung, TCL, Konka and many other brands have taken Mini LED TV as the key layout of their TV technology development. On March 9, TCL released the third generation of QD-MiniLED series TV new products at the spring new product launch. Industry insiders believe that the MiniLED labeling of TCL TVs is becoming more and more obvious.

It is understood that TCL is the first brand to commercialize MiniLED backlight technology, and then xiaomi, Samsung, LG and other brands have also followed suit. With the combination of QD technology and MiniLED backlight technology, MiniLED TVs have significantly improved in picture quality, and the "new" QD-MiniLED TVs have the opportunity to compete with OLED TVs. For consumers, the choice of high-end TV has since added a direction.

According to AVC Revo data, the global shipment size of MiniLED backlit TVs increased from 10,000 units in 2019 to 1.5 million units in 2021, and it is expected that the global Mini LED backlight TV shipment scale will reach 4 million units in 2022.

On the whole, the high-end market of color TVs has an obvious upward trend. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, in February 2022, the retail sales of color TVs with more than 15,000 yuan in the online market accounted for 2.6%. In the offline market, the retail sales of color TVs above 15,000 yuan accounted for 16.8%, an increase of 5.7% year-on-year.

In addition, some of the form innovation design and process manufacturing capabilities that break the inherent image of traditional color TVs have attracted the attention of the public, such as Samsung's new picture frame TV, TCL's world's thinnest MiniLED TV and other products will also bring consumers the most intuitive visual experience.

Industry insiders pointed out that combined with the concept of home improvement and market demand, exploring product breakthroughs and pursuing advanced innovation will be an important direction for the development of color TV products in 2022.