TV Discounts Are Plenty as Retailers, Vendors Look to Clear Out Inventories

TVs, which enjoyed a resurgence and a rare average selling price bump due to supply chain and COVID-19 interruptions, are retreating to more familiar promotional levels as TV makers turn to 2022 product lines, a recent spate of promotions shows.

Best Buy turned up the heat on promotions in a Sunday email promising “Massive offers,” and smart TVs as low as $99. A Samsung 65-inch Q70A Series smart TV was discounted $200 at Best Buy Monday to $999, and an LG 43-inch UP7000 TV was shaved by $30 to $279. Best Buy priced its private-label Insignia 24-inch Fire TV at $99, down $70.

Samsung emailed us Saturday saying an 8K TV we had viewed previously had a price drop. The email urged us to “Rediscover great products. Now for even less.” Prices were especially favorable for 2021 models, as the TV maker looked to make room for 2022 models beginning to hit stores.

The Samsung 2021 75-inch Neo QLED QN800A, shown at a $4,799 list price at Samsung.com, was $2,799 Monday, $3,999 for the step-up QN900A. The 2022 counterparts were selling for $4,299, $400 off, and $5,999, $500 off. Samsung sweetened the 8K TV deals with a freebie: Buyers of Neo QLED 2022 models could get an MX-T70 Sound Tower, valued at $699, “on us.”

At LG.com, the TV maker was offering $800 off select OLED TVs Monday. The 77-inch B2 PUA Series model was $300 off to $2,999. The least expensive OLED TV on an LG e-commerce page was the 55-inch LG 55A1PUA, discounted $400 to $999.

The deals come a week after Target Chief Growth Officer Christina Hennington said on a quarterly earnings call that the retailer was adjusting its product mix after supplies of TVs and other “bulkier” items were experiencing a demand slowdown as customers shifted spending priorities from home-focused products to travel and experiences (see 2205180037).

Target featured a number of sale-priced TVs Monday: a TCL 55-inch 4K Roku TV was $349, down from $519, and the Vizio V-Series 50-inch 4K smart TV was $299, online only. Vizio CEO William Wang noted on an earnings call last week (see 2205130032) that the 50-inch V Series was the top-selling TV in the U.S. last quarter as part of a Vizio strategy to trade off lower TV margins to gain SmartCast platform accounts.

Earlier this month, Display Supply Chain Consultants reported (see 2205020026) continued price declines in LCD panels this quarter, saying prices were getting closer to panel makers’ costs due to a combination of a continued surge in supply and “near-universally” weak demand. The TV industry had a 26% year-on-year sales decline in Q4, said Stephen Baker, vice president-industry adviser, NPD, in March (see 2203070022).