TV sales up 4.8% in 5 months

MANILA, Philippines - The number of TV sets sold in the Philippines rose 4.8 percent in the first five months of the year, a survey conducted by leading global market researcher GfK showed.

Based on the GfK retail audit of TV sales, a total of 518,200 sets were sold in the Philippines from January to May this year compared to 493,400 sets in the same period last year. 

For the month of May alone, about 98,300 TV sets were sold compared to an average of 94,200 sets for the months of February, March and April.

The survey showed that May had the highest monthly sales volume of TV sets for the first five months of the year.

The GfK retail audit of TV sales for May reported nearly 957,000 units sold for the combined markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Retail sales tracking by the leading global market research company revealed that more TV sets are being sold in every single market across the region in the month prior to the start of the FIFA World Cup in June.

“Every four years, a phenomenon takes place to coincide with the coming of a highly anticipated global sporting event— the FIFA World Cup,” the company said in a statement.

According to reports, demand for TV in May this year surged significantly by 15 percent more than the average sales volume achieved in the non-peak months of February, March and April for all markets in the range of four to 31 percent.

Thailand showed the greatest spike of 31 percent, followed by 19 percent in Vietnam and 16 percent in Singapore. It is worth mentioning that the 232,000 TV sets snapped up in Thailand in May was the highest monthly sales achieved by the market in 2014 so far.

“It is interesting to highlight that this trend of higher demand for TVs in the month leading to World Cup was also observed four years ago,” said Gerard Tan, account director for digital world of GfK.  

“GfK’s weekly retail audit for TV sales further showed apparent spikes in take-up volume in various June weeks for Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand to achieve the highest weekly sales since January.”

Overall TV sales in the region have slowed down after several years of rapid growth in developing markets where large number of households were upgrading to flat panel TV from the traditional CRT. With the near completion of the switchover, consumers are now focusing on new features and technology, as well as bigger screen sizes instead.

For instance, Internet-enabled TV is gaining share in Southeast Asia, accounting for 17 percent of all volume sales this year, an increment of five percent additional share from last year.

Highest penetration for this technology segment is seen in Singapore, where it makes up more than half of TV sold. Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia reported over a fifth of the total local market sales volume coming from this segment, at 26, 22 and 21 percent, respectively.

Sales penetration of 3D TVs have reached nearly eight percent in the region. In Singapore, over one in every four sets of TV sold has 3D technology, while Thailand has the next highest share for local 3D TV sales at 12 percent. All other markets are still hovering below the 10 percent level for the segment.

In terms of screen sizes, consumers are also increasingly buying larger boxes for their homes. Still dominating the market is the 32” segment although its share has declined by five percent from last year to account for 41 percent share in volume terms in the first five months of this year.