A report by the British Retail Consortium shows that the TV industry is playing a key role in helping to reduce inflation in the U.K. economy, thanks to the trend for super-sized smart TVs.
A BBC article on the research notes that there has been a big uptick in TV sales ahead of the summer, which is packed with major sporting events such as the Euro 2024 football championship in Germany, Wimbledon and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
One retailer, Currys, pointed to big-screen TVs as driving a significant increase in TV sales. The BBC quoted Currys CEO Alex Baldock as saying that 85-inch plus TV sizes are its “fastest-growing sector”, while 65-inch and 70-inch TV sales have doubled in the last year.
It’s normal for big sporting events to drive an increase in TV sales, but the BRC said TV manufacturers were especially keen to capitalize on the demand for newer, better quality TV sets, introducing some big discounts to consumers. It cited a number of “great deals to capitalize on the Euros fever”.
Currys also pointed out that new, AI-powered features are driving TV sales too. It said this is “arguably the most exciting tech cycle since the Apple iPad in 2010”.
The BRC said that there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of getting the U.K. economy back on track, with a need for whoever wins the general election to “address some of the major cost burdens weighing down the retail industry.”
Not every retailer has enjoyed a bump in TV sales either. For instance, the BBC reported that Argos had seen sales of non-food products drop 6.2% in the most recent quarter, which suggests that a lot of consumers are still reluctant to spend money on non-essentials.
The BRC suggests TV manufacturers will likely to continue to entice U.K. consumers with tempting deals on their big-screen displays throughout the remainder of the year, and speculates that this can help the wider economy to pick itself up off the floor in the coming months.
As such, it may well be that now is the best time to buy. If and when the economy stabilizes, TV brands may feel there’s less of an incentive to offer steep discounts, and instead take advantage of their willingness to spend on non-essentials by raising their prices.
