LG vs. Samsung TV spat spreads worldwide

Consumers buy LG OLED TVs in Mexico City last week. LG Electronics via The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

SEOUL — LG Electronics seems to be taking the spat with Samsung Electronics over picture quality of 8K TVs to the global level by mobilizing its overseas offices, according to industry sources Tuesday.

The company’s US branch recently uploaded a video commercial on its YouTube channel that once again explains why organic light-emitting diode TV technology is superior to its crosstown rival’s quantum dot light-emitting diode TVs. The same version was aired in South Korea in September.

The advertisement for the US market goes as follows: “Wondering how OLED works vs. QLED and LCD TV that has to use backlight? The LG OLED pixels emit their own individual organic light for a TV viewing experience designed to literally take your breath away. … In fact, QLED is simply LCD TV technology under a different name.”
The same advertisement was posted by LG’s Vietnam branch last month.

Considering that the US is the biggest market for both the Korean tech giants for their TV businesses, LG’s expansion of the campaign is being viewed by market watchers as its decision to up the ante in the battle.

This year, Samsung has been aggressively expanding its marketing and sales activities for QLED TVs globally.

The world’s top TV manufacturer with a 30.3 percent share as of the third quarter managed to ramp up sales of its flagship premium QLED TVs in the July-September period, according to data by IHS Markit.

The total sales volume of QLED TVs stood at 1.16 million units, up 520,000 from the same period last year.

In the past three quarters, Samsung recorded 3.15 million units in accumulated sales volume, nearly double the corresponding figure a year earlier.

Now that LG has a new CEO, Kwon Bong Seok, who had officially called Samsung QLED TV a “quantum dot LCD TV,” industry insiders expect the battle to intensify next year.

“LG planned this global-level marketing scheme to make consumers understand the technological difference properly despite Samsung’s misleading brand marketing,” said a company official. “The CES 2020 (taking place in January) might see the second round of TV war between LG and Samsung.”

In response to LG’s skepticism about the backlight, Samsung said in TV commercial last month that large-size screens need it because they require brighter and longer-lasting light.