TCL EYES PREMIUM TV MARKET WITH LARGER SCREENS
Driven by the increasing popularity of bigger displays, revenue for television business grew 30% year on year in the first quarter of 2024
Chinese television set maker TCL is looking to reposition itself as a premium brand, hoping that increased sales of higher-end, larger screen models will help boost its image.
Widely known as a “value for money” TV brand, TCL would move to transform itself into a maker of “affordable premium products”, Dmitri Hu, vicepresident of TCL Industries, said at a press briefing in Wuhan during the company’s Global Partners Conference.
Driven by the increasing popularity of televisions with larger displays, revenue for the company’s TV business grew 30 per cent year on year in the first three months of 2024, TCL Industries vice-president Bill Jiang said at the briefing.
TCL is now betting it can extend that momentum this year as more consumers prefer large screen televisions, and as mini LED technology allows it to offer larger devices at price points more competitive than OLED TVs of the same size.
In 2023, premium TV shipments on the mainland grew 39 per cent while revenues in the same segment grew 49 per cent, driven by Chinese brands’ “aggressive pricing and promotions” for mini LED TVs, according to a report by research firm Counterpoint in February.
Globally, TCL and its Chinese rival Hisense were the second largest TV makers in the world by shipments, both taking 11 per cent of the market last year, according to Counterpoint. Samsung maintained its top spot with 16 per cent of the market globally, the research firm wrote.
“TCL has been one of the leading TV brands for a while, with affordability and good picture quality,” said Ivan Lam, senior analyst at Counterpoint. “However, the brand lags in brand image and cutting-edge tech.”
The company was “very confident” it could successfully reposition itself even though “it takes a little bit of time”, Hu said.
TCL showcased its 115-inch mini-LED TV, which it says is its largest television set that has achieved mass production, at the conference in Wuhan, after announcing the product at CES 2024 in Las Vegas in January.
TCL also previewed a new 163-inch Micro LED TV called X11H Max.
The model, yet to be mass-produced, is currently priced at 800,000 yuan (HK$865,128) and has received “more than 10” customer orders, a staff member said.
TCL Electronics, listed in Hong Kong, said in March that its 2023 revenue was up 10.7 per cent from the previous year, and that its gross profit grew by 12.5 per cent. The company attributed the positive results to what it called its “mid-to-high-end plus large-screen” strategy.
Going forward, TCL still faces challenges such as supply chain cost increases and keeping pace with display technology, including mini-LED and OLEDs, with Korean display makers leading in the latter segment, according to Counterpoint’s Lam.
As commodity prices surge along with high inflation and high interest rates, TCL’s Hu said the company was “watching carefully” and was “proactive in hedging” to mitigate supply chain risks.
TCL’s global supply chain has become more localised to “produce locally and sell locally”, according to Hu. That was why the brand has been expanding its manufacturing capability in regions, including Latin America, Central America and Europe, and countries such as Turkey and Vietnam, he said.