Qunzhi Consulting: Global TV market shipments increased 2% year-on-year in the first half of the year

The Zhitong Finance App learned that in the first half of 2026, World Cup preparations and a shift in demand due to soaring upstream material costs jointly drove the growth of global TV shipments. According to statistics from Sigmaintell (Sigmaintell), global TV market shipments increased 2.0% year-on-year in the first half of the year. At the same time, the surge in demand for AI computing power is compounded by geopolitical factors. Unit costs continue to rise, profit margins for TV manufacturers are further narrowing, and global TV market share is being concentrated on leading brands at an accelerated pace. The total shipment volume of the top 6 brands in the first half of the year was 65.2 million units, up 5.8% year on year. The share reached 62.6%, up 2.2 percentage points year on year. Small and medium-sized brands accelerated their clearance under the double squeeze of costs and channels, and the siphon effect of leading brands became more prominent.

Analysis of mainstream brand strategies: Korean brands accelerate transformation under pressure, Chinese brands consolidate overseas

(1) Korean brands: scale is under pressure, focusing on software ecology, cost reduction and efficiency while repairing profitability

Samsung: The strategic focus is shifting from hardware to software, improving quality, reducing costs and improving profits

In the first half of the year, with its supply chain resource advantages and active terminal strategy, Samsung shipped 17.1 million units, an increase of 3.6% over the previous year, ranking first in the world in scale. However, behind the recovery in shipments, continued losses on the hardware side have not improved. Faced with the challenge of strong growth of Chinese brands and the double pressure of continuing hardware losses, the new CEO of Samsung Electronics began drastic reforms after taking office. According to an analysis by Sigmaintell (Sigmaintell), Samsung TV's strategy is shifting from “hardware-centered” to “ecology-centered”, as shown by:

1. Focus on the OS and AI business, open up Tizen OS, and seek more OS users, reduce hardware costs through organizational structure adjustments and increase TV outsourcing in the future, while seeking more users from other brands; in the future, Samsung TV will further strengthen AI functions and promotion to help upgrade the TV ecosystem and close the loop of software revenue.

2. Reducing hardware costs and increasing efficiency in parallel is expected to improve the cost competitiveness of the entire television set and help the scale resume growth. The strategy is mainly reflected in the following aspects: ① speeding up the introduction of diversified material suppliers to improve BOM cost competitiveness; ② successively shutting down inefficient factories, shrinking the number of factory bases, increasing the proportion of outsourced OEM machines and reducing overall costs; ③ gradually withdrawing from inefficient markets such as China, focusing on the growth of high-end European and American markets and emerging overseas markets; ④ promoting high-end products, expanding the layout of Mini LED and OLED TV products, and strengthening AI empowerment. Sigmaintell (Sigmaintell) predicts that in 2026, Samsung's annual shipping scale will reverse the decline that continued to decline in previous years, and increase 2.0% year over year.

LGE: High-end OLEDs stick to the basic market, and Chinese supply chain hedging cost pressure

LGE shipped 9.7 million units in the first half of the year, up 4.1% year on year. The TV business achieved profit improvements, mainly due to the following adjustments: ① The product structure was further skewed towards the high-end, and the expansion of the Mini LED product line drove a significant increase in shipments, forming a double track parallel trend with OLED in high-end products; ② Continued supply chain improvement to increase the proportion of Chinese raw materials procurement and optimize BOM cost competitiveness; ③ Implement the “Global South Plan” to explore the increase in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and Latin America, and restart the Russian market in the second half of the year; ④ Strengthen webOS Ecology, strengthening software profitability. Sigmaintell (Sigmaintell) predicts that LGE TV shipments are expected to increase slightly by 0.3% this year.

(2) Chinese brands: reconstructing the global competitive landscape based on local industrial chain advantages and differentiated product technology

Although shipments in the Chinese market continued to decline in the first half of the year, Hisense, TCL, and Skyworth shifted their growth focus overseas, supporting their global shipments to maintain their upward trend. Sigmaintell (Sigmaintell) predicts that by 2026, China's top four companies will combine more than 65% of overseas shipments.

TCL: Focus on the vertical integration of SQD-mini LED, and the joint venture with Sony points to be number one in the world

TCL TV shipments increased 11.3% year-on-year in the first half of the year. By strengthening collaboration with Huaxing Optoelectronics and Maojia Technology, integrated panel-machine manufacturing collaboration was realized, and costs and technology were autonomous and controllable in both directions. The technology route targets the SQD-mini LED and continues to advance the “globalization+mid-to-high-end” strategy. In the first half of the year, TCL's global medium and large size and mini LED TV products grew rapidly, and the product structure was further optimized. Through product structure upgrades and sports event marketing, growth continued in the European, American and Latin American markets in the first half of the year.

In April 2027, TCL plans to establish a joint venture with Sony. It is expected that the two sides will share SQD-mini LED core technology to strengthen collaboration in multiple dimensions such as products, supply chain management, and channels. After the establishment of the joint venture, TCL and Sony's merger volume will rank first in the world in the future.

Hisense: RGB-mini LEDs and self-developed chips build technical barriers, AI+VIDAA OS creates second software growth curve

In the first half of the year, Hisense took advantage of sports event marketing and comprehensive cost advantages, and its shipment volume increased 4.6% year over year, and the performance was particularly impressive in North America and Latin America. The hardware side focuses on RGB-mini LED technology and collaborates with self-developed Hi-View image quality chips to increase the product's native refresh rate to 180Hz, and thoroughly lays out RGBC four-color backlighting and four-color panel technology to transform technical barriers into market competitiveness; the software side empowers the VIDAA OS ecosystem with AI, gradually expands overseas influence and explores the potential for software value-added; in terms of the supply chain, Hisense strategically invested in HKC. While maintaining strategic cooperation with BOE, it gradually increased the amount of cooperation between high-end products and HKC. In the future, if AUO TV panel production capacity is gradually withdrawn, it may accelerate the shift in demand for Hisense panels to BOE, HKC, and Innolux.

Xiaomi: large-scale growth overseas

Xiaomi's domestic market continues to focus on product structure upgrades and hardware profit optimization. Overseas markets rely on memory chip resource reserves and the Hyper OS ecosystem to go overseas. Markets outside India experienced high growth, and the penetration rate of products above 55 inches continued to increase. Overseas shipments increased 18.8% year-on-year in the first half of the year. At the supply chain level, Xiaomi currently mainly relies on Huaxing's panel supply and works well with Moka's foundry business. It will continue to promote the resilience of the panel supply chain in the future. Sigmaintell (Sigmaintell) predicts that its annual shipment volume is expected to increase 0.8% year over year.

Skyworth: Overseas mergers and acquisitions integrate multi-brand matrices and bind BOE to stabilize panel supply

Skyworth will continue to undertake Philip's North American business and Panasonic TV business (outside of Japan) from 2025 to 2026, creating a “Skyworth own+Metz+Philip+ Panasonic” multi-brand matrix. According to Sigmaintell (Sigmaintell) data, shipments increased 16.0% year-on-year in the first half of the year with the support of Philips and Panasonic brand shipments. The product side simultaneously lays out the SQD-mini LED and RGB-mini LED dual technology routes, and continues to cultivate the art TV segmentation circuit. The supply chain side is deeply bound to BOE panel resources and continues to strengthen the OEM business. The scale of shipments in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region is expected to increase significantly this year, driving a 2.7% year-on-year increase in private label shipments throughout the year.

Other brands: Taking advantage of Walmart's channel resources, Vizio shipped 2.9M in the first half of the year, up 21.8% year on year. With the support of active promotion strategies in the second half of the year, shipments are expected to increase 1.3% year over year. Philips, on the other hand, continues to strengthen collaboration with TPV foundry production to hedge against cost pressure.

Summary and outlook

The core logic of the 2026 global TV brand competition has clearly emerged: market size is the ticket of entry, product and supply chain capabilities are a watershed, and ecology is the high point. Sigmaintell (Sigmaintell) believes that in this deep transformation of the TV industry, brands that can integrate hardware, AI model capabilities, content, and business models into a complete ecosystem are expected to gain a new competitive advantage in the “post-hardware era” and advance into the future. The ranking game for leading factions in the TV industry will still have many changes worth looking forward to.