The abrupt weakening of global demand for TV sets, combined with continued LCD capacity expansion, caused an oversupply in the market in the second half of 2015. This shift to oversupply has resulted in extremely steep LCD TV panel price declines, but it has been difficult to pass the savings along to consumers, as inflation and currency depreciation in emerging markets have offset the cost reduction.


While overall TV shipments fell last year, year-over-year 4K TV shipment growth was impressive. Unit shipments rose 173 percent to 32 million units, aided by year-over-year average selling-price-per-inch erosion of nearly 30 percent. The pace of TV screen size growth slowed in 2015, and the average size of TV displays grew just 2 percent to 39.3 inches, which is about half the rate of growth in 2014.
“TV shipment growth in China was strong in the fourth quarter, due to sell-in for the Chinese New Year Holidays, which runs counter to the very weak conditions in other emerging markets,” said Paul Gagnon, director of TV research for IHS Technology. “Like China, North America has largely been unaffected by depreciation and inflation due to the strong dollar, leading to steady, if slow, shipment growth, though inventory management remains a concern.”
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