Lockdown helps to revive TV market after two years; 2-3 times surge in demand for large screen

After two years of declining sales, overall television sales has grown over 35-50% since last month when markets opened up, with the large screen models reporting 2-3 times growth. This is as compared to both sequential pre-Covid periods of January-February and over same period last year, senior industry executives said.

KOLKATA: The idiot box has got a fresh lease of life post Covid-19 lockdown. At least, early indicators suggest so.

After two years of declining sales, overall television sales has grown over 35-50% since last month when markets opened up, with the large screen models reporting 2-3 times growth. This is as compared to both sequential pre-Covid periods of January-February and over same period last year, senior industry executives said.

Executives in brands and retailers like Sony, Panasonic, Kodak, Thomson, Sanyo, Daiwa, Vijay Sales, Great Eastern Retail and Reliance Retail said this is also the first time when large screen models -- 43-inches and above, have become the largest selling by number of units sold as compared to the staple 32-inches which has been the bread-and-butter of the industry.

New releases in streaming services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, fear to visit multiplexes and the lockdown in itself has changed family viewing habits with people now watching television together after several years -- all triggering this revival. No wonder, the demand is higher for the pricier smart televisions which can connect directly to streaming services.

“All segments are growing, especially smart TV,” said Panasonic India CEO Manish Sharma. “This was due as last couple of years demand was not growing to potential,” he said. Several brands have also sold out their existing stock.

East and North’s leading electronics chain Great Eastern Retail director Pulkit Baid said TV viewing is back during the lockdown whereby consumers who used to earlier watch movies, shows and news privately on their smartphones are now buying televisions.

He said the shift to larger screen is driven by consumers in higher income bracket who are least affected by Covid. “Those in lower and middle income bracket are more affected and they would buy 32-inches whereby this segment has shrunk,” Baid said.

E-commerce marketplace Flipkart spokesperson said categories like mobile, laptops were already in demand, while sales have doubled for televisions as well. This is driven by people spending more time with families pushing requirement for multiple screens in a single household.

Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of SPPL, manufacturer of Kodak and Thomson TV brands, said sales have grown by 2.5-3 times and it has sold over 40,000 sets. “It’s like festive season demand. There was also pent up demand of three million units whose sales was lost during the lockdown,” he said.

In fact, television manufacturers are facing constraints to scale up production due to labour shortage to meet this demand.

Contract manufacturer for 15 leading TV brands, Videotex International director Arjun Bajaj said production for TV is the highest across all categories in the industry at 85%. “Our order book too is the biggest in last two years. We expect to touch 100% capacity or more by next month,” he said.

While Realme forayed into TV recently, several like OnePlus and TCL are expanding their television line-up for the Indian market. The market had declined by 2% each in 2018 and 2019 as per sales tracker GfK despite a crash in prices. In contrast, the market had grown by 22% in 2015, 17% in 2016 and 3% in 2017.