Thanks to the demand for TVs throughout the world, but especially in the United States and China, prices of LCD TV panels are expected to increase in the third quarter of this year. That’s according to a new report this week by Bob O’Brien of Digital Supply Chain Consultants. 

The increase is expected following prices of the panels hitting all-time lows at the end of 2019, even prior to the pandemic. Once the pandemic started, prices, per DSCC, dropped down to the levels set at the end of 2019, with some sizes even dipping below. 

“We now expect prices to increase in Q3 for all sizes of TV panels except 75”, with double-digit percent gains in sizes from 32” to 55”,” the firm said. “Although we continue to expect that the long-term downward trend will resume in Q4, and that TV panel prices will hit new all-time lows in Q1 2021, the situation remains dynamic, and with the pandemic raging it seems like an eternity between now and the end of the year.” 

The largest panels, which are made more efficiently, are not likely to be affected. 

DSCC went on to predict a “weaker-than-normal holiday selling season,” and that demand will increase once again, once the postponed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo are expected to take place in July and August of 2021. 

“After the industry recognized an average TV panel price increase of 4.6% Q/Q in Q1, and a Q/Q price decline of 3.4% in Q2, we are now expecting prices to increase in Q3 2020 by an average of 9.1% Q/Q,” the DSCC report said. “As noted above, however, the average increase in sizes between 32” and 55” is substantially larger at 11.7%, while we expect 65” to get a 6% price increase Q/Q and 75” to see a 1% price decline. In Q4, we expect all TV panel sizes to get a price decrease, ranging from 2% to 5% depending on size, with an average of 4.5%, but this would still leave Q4 LCD TV panel prices higher than those in Q2 2020.”

While newer technologies like OLED and QLED are at the cutting-edge of TVs, LCD technology is still the dominant technology used in TV panels worldwide. For 2019, per Statista, LCD TV sets made up 96.7% of the market for TVs, although QLED and OLED are steadily gaining, a trend that is expected to continue in the coming years. 

Samsung, for instance, will reportedly stop production of traditional LCD displays by the end of 2020, with LG Display and Panasonic also backing away from the technology. Samsung remains the leader in the global TV market for fourteen years in a row, per Flat Panels HD.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters