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Customers compare television sets in an electronics shop in Dubai. With the football broadcast available in 4K, some retailers are promoting models that are 4K enabled. Image Credit: Arshad Ali/Gulf News

Dubai: TV sales are booming amid the Fifa World Cup and Indian Premier League (IPL),

the CEO of Sharaf DG has said.

Nilesh Khalkho told Gulf News that TV sales had picked up considerably over the past few weeks — first due to the IPL, then Ramadan and now with football.

“In the preceding months, sales were declining but we have seen them moving up towards a positive trend compared to 2017 which is a good sign,” he said.

The World Cup runs from June 14 to July 15 in Russia. Four Arab countries — Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia — are taking part this year.

Julian Lee, an analyst at TrendForce, said global branded TV shipments are expected to reach 217 million units for 2018, a year-on-year growth of three per cent.

“The TV industry last year was largely influenced by the tight supply of TV panels. The soaring prices of TV panels in the first half of last year significantly dampened the profitability of TV vendors, as the result, the shipments of branded TVs recorded 210.6 million units, a new low since 2014,” he said.

Niranjan Gidwani, CEO of Eros Group, said that IPL did not have much impact but the last three weeks saw an upsurge in sales of 55-inch TVs and above.

“We are seeing an increase of between 10 per cent and 12 per cent for the start of the second quarter when compared to the first quarter. The quarter is not yet finished,” he said.

He added that OLED (organic light-emitting diode) sales have been good for the last six months or so and after Samsung adjusted their QLED prices, the uptake has been good in the last two months.

Shoji Ohama, head of TV marketing at Sony Middle East and Africa, said the football World Cup does spur big screen television sales, especially in the 55-inch and above segment.

“We are expecting more than 20 per cent year-on-year growth. Sony made a strong comeback in 2017 with a 69 per cent YoY growth in the 55-inch and above segment. We have seen that people are buying all the large screen sizes from 55-inch and above. In addition, in the 75-inch and above segment, we are seeing a huge spike in demand when it comes to YoY growth,” he said.

Sony is hoping to maintain a strong growth of 15 per cent this year.

Ohama said that both OLED and LCD (liquid crystal display) sales are increasing, but in percentage growth terms, then OLED has witnessed a further increase in sales.

With the football broadcast available in 4K, Khalkho said Sharaf DG was focusing on models which are 4K enabled and the retailer has a great line-up of such models, featuring prices about 15 per cent-30 per cent lower than last year for the same sizes.

At the same time, he said that newer technologies like OLED and QLED are also seeing a good offtake even with a slightly premium pricing.

“LCD panels are now almost obsolete except in small sizes. The growth is being driven by the large (65-inch and above) and ultra large (80-inch and above) models. This segment is growing as prices have come down on these large-sized panels — about 15 per cent lower than last year and almost 30 per cent drop for ultra large size panels,” he said.

Meanwhile, Liz Exhibition Oranisers is organising a three-day consumer electronics and lifestyle expo — The Happy Sale — for bargain hunters at Dubai World Trade Centre from June 28-30.

“Brands will be offering discounts of up to 60 per cent on some TV models at the event to entice buyers,” said Jacob Varghese, managing director of Liz Exhibition.