Smart TV Demand Wanes; Focus on Premium Brands Raises ASPs: Kagan

Demand for smart TVs cooled to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels in Q1, leading to an estimated 9.2% drop in smart TV shipments, Kagan emailed Tuesday. Most vendors increased the proportion of premium, high-margin products in response to component shortages, resulting in a 21% rise in average selling prices (ASPs) to an estimated $496, said the S&P Global Market Intelligence research firm. It estimated Q1 smart TV revenue was $16.6 billion. Young brands such as Xiaomi and TCL had pockets of growth in emerging markets, Kagan said, saying the Chinese companies grew twice as fast as better-known Korean and Japanese brands. Samsung's Tizen-based Smart Hub maintained the largest connected TV operating system installed base worldwide, with an estimated 23.1% share, followed by Google’s Android TV, which is close to overtaking LG's WebOS to be the second-largest smart TV platform by footprint, Kagan said. Smart TV revenue continued to rise in recent quarters driven by component cost increases that were passed on to unit ASPs, offsetting shipment volume declines, Kagan said. Demand in the premium smart TV space is “relatively stable” regardless of price, but competition in the low- and midrange markets “remains stiff, keeping overall ASPs from going completely out of control,” it said. “Competitively priced models from the Chinese TV makers have become attractive options compared to more traditional brands, as smart TV adoption gradually grows among emerging markets like India, Latin America and the Asia Pacific,” said analyst Milan Ringol.