Cricket World Cup boosts TV sales

Power retailers plan more promotions to attract &cricket fans to upgrade to HD, 4K or UH TVs, writes Abdul Basit

Large screen size and the best picture quality TVs are the only options for those who love cricket but are unable to fly to Australia and New Zealand to watch the action packed ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which will run from February 14 to March 29.

That’s the reason power retailers see significant growth in sales for large screens and high quality TVs as the cricket world cup is around the corner and cricket fans in the UAE would love to see huge sixes, quick boundaries, difficult catches, and clean bold actions on big screens with their families and friends at home.

Sports seasons usually draw a large number of customers looking to upgrade their televisions to a larger screen size or better resolution, such as HD, 4K or UHD TVs, top electronics retailers in the UAE told Khaleej Times.

As sports are best enjoyed in front of a large and high quality TV screens, watching the game on a large screen with high precision sound and clarity will be the closest cricket fans can get to experience the action on the cricket pitches.

Emirates airline also launched a promotion that will take lucky winners to see the world cup venues in Australia and Sydney.

“Book online between 1 and February 28, 2015 for travel to any of our destinations worldwide by July 31, 2015, and get a chance to win a trip to the exciting ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 semi-finals,” Emirates airline said in email to its skywards members. Prize includes two Economy Class return flights to either Sydney or Auckland, four nights’ accommodation and match tickets, the airline added.

Since the beginning of Dubai Shopping Festival 2015 high quality and large screen size TVs were in high demand because of the crazy deals, lower prizes, and on top of that cricket world cup, according to retailers. The sales momentum is expected to continue for a month and more promotions, special deals and bundled offers are being planned, they indicated.

Sharaf DG chief executive officer, Nilesh Khalkho, said: “Cricket traditionally triggers a spike in TV sales with a majority of residents in UAE following cricket. We have witnessed robust growth in TV sales starting with DSF and we see it continue in February and March 2015 majorly driven by change in technology.”

The Ultra HD TV and OLED segment has led the growth clocking upwards of 25 per cent growth year on year, Khalkho said, adding: “Sports is best enjoyed on a large TV and UHD has provided a reason for customers to upgrade from their LCD and LED TV.”

Sharaf DG has been at the forefront in promoting large TV and UHD through various promotions. “We see maximum interest in the 55-inch and above TVs in the UHD and OLED segment, where the prices have come down by as much as 50 per cent over the last few months and customers are looking at enjoying a better viewing experience with the majority of content now available in Full HD,” he explained.

Emax chief executive officer, Neelesh Bhatnagar, said: “Our sale of television sets has soared by 16 per cent. It is a trend that we have been witnessing over the years with such events, and this time again the trend is expected to continue.”

TV sales overall have been growing at an enormous pace and DSF has also provided a boost to those figures. This is definitely the season for TVs, predominantly because of the several global sporting events that are scheduled for this time of the year. UHD’s TVs with bigger screen sizes have performed predominantly well during the month.

“The sales momentum will certainly continue due to the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup, Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, Champions League round of 16 to name a few. We are expecting another steep hike rise just around the second week of February,” Bhatnagar explained.

Nadeem Khanzadah, head of OmniChannel Retail, Jumbo Group, said: “We saw a relative increase in TV sales margins during Fifa last year. With countries that have large expat communities here, such as India, Pakistan, England, Australia, and even the UAE set to play at the ICC World Cup, we expect to see an uptake in television sales, in the run up to and during the tournament.”

A great many shoppers did take advantage of DSF discounts and offers on top quality televisions, in anticipation of the upcoming cricketing season. “Even otherwise, we saw healthy growth in the sale of HD and UHD TVs as well as other products during DSF,” Khanzadah said.

Mahesh Chotrani, AVP Jacky’s Electronics, said: “There definitely is an increase in the sales of TV due to the Cricket World Cup. We’ve particularly seen a rise in the sale of the big screens as well as the 4K and UHD models.”

Jacky’s recorded a growth of 16 per cent in the sales of TVs this season in comparison to DSF 2014,” Chotrani informed.

“We are expecting the TV sales momentum to grow in the coming few days owing to the Cricket World Cup spread over the next two months. We are expecting even further rise in sales in the first week of March when the real action of the matches begins, i.e. the quarter finals games.”

Niranjan Gidwani, deputy CEO, Eros Group, said: “DSF was a good time for TV sales. Customers were looking for TVs in larger sizes and preferably in Ultra High Definition. There were good deals on offer from both TV brands in our portfolio – Samsung & TCL.”

Last month, Eros group launched a promotion on big TVs and that was especially for cricket fans. “The response to the Samsung promotion to fly to Australia was phenomenal. We are glad the principals could make this happen and fly 10 winners down under,” Gidwani said.

On the other hand Gidwani is not very optimistic about significant growth in TV sales and said: “With Dubai Shopping Festival just concluded we do not anticipate a high number of sales for flat panels during the World Cup. Also timings of the matches being in the early morning it would seem unlikely that TV would be a preferred medium to take in the game. This is unlike the sales which we witnessed during the Fifa World Cup last year which was well timed for TV viewing.”

— abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com