Smart TV volumes grow, but overall sales dip in Jan-Apr
1 min read . Updated: 13 Jun 2022, 01:05 AM IST
Premium- The television market witnessed a volume decline of 1.2% in January-April 2022 versus January-April 2021, a report said
Television sales volume fell marginally between January and April, but the sale of smart televisions or connected TVs saw double-digit growth compared to the year ago.
Demand for regular panel TV sets in the four months first declined due to the Omicron wave earlier in the year. Subsequently, sale volumes stunted as consumers started saving money to buy cooling products, or decided to avoid discretionary purchases as inflation impacted household budgets, according to companies and research firms
“The television market witnessed a volume decline of 1.2% in January-April 2022 versus January-April 2021. During the same period, the smart TV segment grew 10% in terms of volumes," point-of-sale retail data by GfK Market Intelligence showed.
TV is among the most penetrated products in electronics with a 65%. reach. The TV market is estimated to be ₹25,000 crore, according to BNP Paribas India.
Prolonged work from home orders during the lockdown in 2020 had shored up demand for large screen television sets and smart TVs as people spent longer hours at home. Now, as consumers were back in office and schools started physical classes, demand for TV sets has declined. Besides, unusually high inflation is also prompting households to go easy on discretionary expenses.
Fumiyasu Fujimori, managing director, Panasonic Marketing India, said the overall television segment growth has slowed in the last few months. “This can be attributed to people returning to usual lifestyle, change in priority spends and rising commodity costs."
During the two years of covid-19 large screen TVs had been fuelling growth, but now despite a demand slow down, 55- inch TV sets are performing well, he added.
According to electronics retailer Vijay Sales demand has been flat January onwards. Avneet Singh Marwah, director and chief executive, Super Plastronics, which sells Kodak and Thomson TVs attributed the sales decline to high inflation eating into the consumer’s ability to spend.
“After the lockdown there was huge pent-up demand for TVs, but wave two and three have hit consumers hard. With inflation impacting disposable income, we saw de-growth in the market," Marwah expects television sales to bounce back in July-August.
