Sales of TVs 70 Inches and Larger Up 60% This Year, Says Corning CFO

The industry is having “mid-single digit” sales growth in the TV category for 2019, with the screen sizes of sets sold averaging about an inch and a half larger than in 2018, Corning Chief Financial Officer Tony Tripeny told a Barclays investor conference Thursday. That’s “pretty consistent with what we expected at the beginning of the year” in terms of “glass volume,” he said. “The preliminary information that we've had on Black Friday has been pretty positive.” Sales of TVs 55 inches and larger are up more than 40 percent this year, he said. Sales of sets 70 inches and larger are up more than 60 percent, he said. Meeting the demand for large TV screen sizes “is what has driven the industry to invest in these Gen 10.5 factories,” which are optimized for 65- and 75-inch sets, he said. Though there has been “a little bit of a slowdown in panel-maker utilization,” Corning is “confident” the situation “works itself out in the first half of next year,” he said. Corning is “supplying most of the Gen 10.5 glass,” said Tripeny. “It's a great strategic story.”