Samsung and LG Display sign a deal for the OLED TV panels

The South Korean tech company Samsung introduced its first OLED TV back in early 2022. Later on, the company introduced the second-generation QD-OLED TV at CES 2023. As of now, some recent pieces of information suggest that the company doesn’t have a sufficient supply of QD-OLED panels from its Samsung Display unit. For this reason, the firm has to buy these panels from LG Display.

In accordance with a recent report from Reuters, Samsung Electronics will purchase 2 million W-OLED TV panels from LG Display. These will be acquired during the first year of the deal. In the subsequent year, the company will purchase 3 million OLED TV panels from LG Display. In the third year, Samsung Electronics will buy 5 million units. Reportedly, the supplies will include 77-inch and 83-inch OLED panels. Using this supply, Samsung could create an amazing lineup of premium OLED TVs. Since the low-end sales of TVs by Samsung are because of the stiff competition with Chinese companies like TCL, Hisense, Xiaomi, and Skyworth.

Within Samsung, Samsung Display is the company’s unit that is associated with the manufacturing of TV panels whereas Samsung DX is the unit that sells TVs. Initially, 55-inch and 65-inch TV panels were supplied by Samsung Display to Samsung DX. However, the numbers of shipments were comparatively low owing to the new technology and low yield. This year, Samsung Display was manufacturing 77-inch OLED panels but not 83-inch ones. It is the point of distinction between the two companies since LG Display already manufactures 83-inch OLED panels.

Given this deal, Samsung has a chance to become the second-biggest OLED TV brand in the world. It will have the chance to grab Sony’s position. LG Display will also benefit from this deal since it is facing continuous losses for the previous four quarters given the less demand for TVs after the pandemic. A deal with Samsung will help the company recover the losses.

As per the reports by Omdia, currently, LG is the top OLED TV maker. It has a market share of 54.6%, where Sony has (26.1%) and Samsung occupies (6.1%) market share. Sony and Samsung are at the second and third ranks, respectively. It is anticipated that the market will grow to $11.7 billion in 2023 and $12.9 by 2027.