EMEA TV sales down for 2011 with LCD taking 90 per cent

Sales fell across the region but grew again at the end of 2011, Meko finds

The market share of LCD TVs sold across EMEA rose to 90 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011, with plasma and CRT volumes shrinking to 10 per cent.

That is according to the latest figures from displays analyst Meko, whose Advanced TV Research Service also found that the European TV market overall was 6.2 per cent down to 71.6 million sets for the full 2011 year.

TV sales in Q4 were down 4.9 per cent on the last quarter of 2010, to 22.9 million units, although they were up in Q3 – following the usual seasonal pattern in TV sales.

Bob Raikes, principal analyst at Meko, noted that even the Middle East and Africa struggled with TV sales during this time, due to the north African troubles.

"That region had been doing well, but growth slowed towards the end of the year," Raikes wrote.

"In some years, consumers have rewarded themselves for not spending money in the second half of the year by buying themselves something nice at Christmas, but this year they just continued to be cautious. Consumers in Germany, who do not have to rebalance their debt in the way that consumers in credit-driven countries such as the UK have had to, turned out to be the stars of the region."

Germany was the largest market for TV in 2011, with the UK market dropping back to the sales level of France, the analyst found.

Samsung took 34 per cent of the market, and LG's share shrank to 19 per cent in volume terms. Sony stayed in third for the year, only just ahead of Philips.

Screen sizes of 42in and 46in grew fastest. FullHD sets with 42in displays are now nearly a third of the market by value. By value, LED-backlit sets went past 60 per cent for the first time, according to Meko.