EMEA TV market falls 8 per cent in Q2 2009

For flat panel sets (LCD and PDP), the quarter-on-quarter decline was 5.6 per cent, but flat panel sales were up by 8.7 per cent year-on-year accounting for 10.2 million units. This is only 2.6 per cent above Meko’s forecast. Flat panel market value rose 2 quarter-on-quarter with the increase coming from LCD sales which grew 4 per cent in value QoQ, while all other display technologies dropped in market value.

The reason for the increase for LCDs is that penetration of larger than 32in models increased from 29.6 per cent to 32 per cent of all LCDs and Full HD penetration also increased. The value increase was also driven by the higher prices of LED-backlit models which are more common in the FullHD segment. Flat panel set value is still down by 24.4 per cent year-on-year.

‘Market volume decline in Q2 was expected and the result is in line with our forecast,’ commented Goksen Sertler, TV market analyst at Meko. ‘The major reduction is coming from Eastern Europe, where TV shipments shrank by 14 per cent. The lowest shipments usually occur in Q2, especially when there are
no special events such as the Olympics or World Cup’.

An analysis of the final data for all TV technologies revealed that all of the top ten brands, except for Grundig, reported quarter-on-quarter declines. Over the whole of Europe, Grundig-branded TV shipment numbers were up by 0.2 per cent but this was due to a quarterly increase in the UK market. Sharp showed the biggest quarter-on-quarter decline with a 44 per cent drop. On a yearly basis, our analysis shows that JVC had the highest quarter-on-quarter decline with a 60 per cent drop to 141,000 units.

The top five brands were Samsung, which increased its share from 26 to 28 per cent, LG with 21 per cent, Sony with 8.4 per cent, Philips with 7.8 per cent and Panasonic with 6 per cent by volume. The major change in the top five was the swap between Sony and Philips, as Sony climbed to third just above Philips.

The market share order for value in the EMEA market was exactly the same as for volume for the top five brands. Samsung and LG were the only brands which showed significant value growth. They showed 9.7 per cent and 6 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth in value respectively while Sony, Philips and Panasonic showed stable market value on a quarter-on-quarter basis. ‘Samsung achieved high value growth by increasing its Full HD shipments and cutting 720p TV shipments’, commented Sertler. ‘Samsung’s Full HD shipments are up from 35 to 51 per cent of its total LCD shipments. 32in 720p is still the best selling size and resolution combination’.

In the 37in and 40/42in categories Samsung reduced its 720p shipments to 1.2 per cent of its overall LCD sales, down from 8 per cent last quarter. 1080p products replaced 720p sets in their sales and this boosted Samsung’s market value numbers.

LG showed value growth in both LCD and PDP sales. LG’s move to Full HD was not as aggressive as Samsung’s, but LCD value growth still came from the Full HD segment. Turning to PDP, LG tripled its P50H shipments, its highest shipment number in this category in the last two years, and this was the key to the boost in its PDP sales value.

The size split of the LCD market shows growth in the share of larger sizes while there has been a significant reduction in both the number and share of the smaller sizes. In the LCD market, the total of 32in and the smaller sizes showed a 8.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter decline while the sum of 37in and larger sizes showed quarter-on-quarter growth of 2 per cent. Although the overall 32in category showed an 8.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter decline, 32in Full HD showed massive growth with a 63 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase by volume. All of the top five brands’ 32in Full HD shipments grew in Q2.