What They Say
DSCC has been looking at special offers for TVs in the Black Friday promotion period. The firm found that low LCD prices are reaching retail and TV pricing has reached an all-time low although that’s mainly in larger sizes. For the first time, a 75″ set got below $500 for the first time and an 85″ for less than $1,000.
The firm pointed out that a lot of the previous lowest prices were in 2019, with 2020 affected by supply issues and by 2021 high panel prices had pushed prices up to be considerably higher. The comparison makes the jumps look very big from last year.
DSCC said:
The Best Buy promotion of a 55” TCL QLED TV for $199 stands out as a striking discount. This matches the all-time low for a 55” TV but with a brand (TCL) and a screen technology (QLED) which are a step above the typical lowest-priced offerings.
A second table on the website covers premium models including 8K, miniLED and OLED sets. Samsung included its 8K Neo QLED MiniLED TVs for Black Friday, and prices for 8K 65” and 75” sets hit all-time lows at $2599 and $3299, respectively.
DSCC pointed out that pricing is unusually consistent between different retailers and channels. It also sees scope for price rises or falls, depending on the success of the Black Friday promotions.
What We Think
Around this time, we work hard to avoid bombarding you with Black Friday offers, so I’m grateful for the work that DSCC put in to make some sense of the vast number of offers and releases that we see.
I had a quick look and it seems that the UK prices are below the level of the US. For example, Richer Sounds has the Samsung 55″ QD-OLED at £1,209 – including Tax – that’s equivalent to $1,195 before tax, whereas the US price is $1449 at Best Buy. It’s very unusual to see prices lower in the UK than the US! The 75″ 8K Neo QLED from Samsung is £3.399 including tax, which is about the same price as the US version. (BR)
