TV Market: Could LG really sell its TV division to Hisense?

Is the global television market truly about to experience one of the biggest upheavals in its history? After nearly 60 years in the sector, LG is reportedly considering, albeit very tentatively, selling its TV division. According to the Korean media outlet EBN, representatives from the Seoul-based company even recently traveled to Beijing to meet with executives from the Chinese giant Hisense to discuss the future of this division (Editor's note: the original article published earlier today has been removed). A market exit from OLED TVs mirroring the smartphone market? This radical restructuring, if it were to materialize, could be explained by declining profitability and unsustainable competitive pressure (Editor's note: we have often discussed the difficulties of the LG Display subsidiary in our columns; see our news article "LG Display: Profitability finally on track in 2025 thanks to OLED"). To support this hypothesis, some point to LG's closure of its smartphone division in 2021. Such a withdrawal would nevertheless leave a huge and difficult-to-conceive void in the premium TV segment, particularly in the large-format and OLED market, a technology in which the brand still holds an overwhelming market share. The surge of Chinese manufacturers is shaking up established TV players. The television landscape has radically changed in just a few years. Chinese brands like TCL and Hisense have experienced meteoric global growth, capturing approximately 14% and 15% of the global market share, respectively. This spectacular rise is based on an extremely aggressive pricing policy combined with products whose performance can easily be described as surprising. This new economic reality is forcing established manufacturers to completely overhaul their long-term strategies. This situation also echoes another major restructuring in the industry, inconceivable before Sony's official announcement. The Japanese group also recently sold a majority stake in its own TV division to another Chinese flagship, TCL. A firm denial and an industry reality that raise questions about the veracity of this rumor. Faced with the shockwave caused by this announcement, which dates back only a few hours, skeptical reactions were swift, starting with that of the company most directly involved. An LG spokesperson immediately responded, calling these reports "completely unfounded, speculative, and misleading." Beyond the official denial, many industry observers share this disbelief. It seems difficult to imagine LG parting ways with a TV division that serves as a global technological showcase for its subsidiary, LG Display, the only large-scale producer of WOLED panels. Not to mention the potential fallout from LG's partnership with Samsung in the OLED TV market, where LG supplies millions of panels to Samsung (see our news article "Samsung and LG Display OLED/LCD TV Agreement Signed for 5 Years!"), a partnership that forms the basis of a national alliance to resist Chinese competitors. Furthermore, abandoning the television market would mean cutting off the main outlet for its own screen factories, a scenario radically different from that of smartphones, where the brand had no vertically integrated production advantages.