Customers take a look at LG Electronics' OLED TVs at Media Markt Alexa Berlin shopping center branch, Saturday. Courtesy of LG Electronics

By Baek Byung-yeul

BERLIN ― LG Electronics has demonstrated its leadership in the premium TV segment with its lineup of OLED TVs, which can be seen at Media Markt's Alexa shopping center branch in the German capital.

Media Markt is one of Europe's largest consumer electronics chains. At the branch, Media Markt displayed every model of LG's OLED TV line-up, from a 42-inch model to a 97-inch one, the largest OLED TV on the market.

Given that the retail store features various TV brands, including Samsung Electronics, Sony and Hisense, LG filling the display space with expensive OLED TVs clearly showed the company's strong confidence in regard to the premium segment of the German market.

"We introduced the 42-inch LG OLED Flex gaming TV and the 97-inch LG OLED evo Gallery Edition at the ongoing IFA tech fair. The Alexa branch is a place where visitors can see our latest OLED TVs, including these two new ones. Basically, the TV market has been struggling this year, but the premium TV segment is holding out well without much impact," a high-ranking official from the company's Germany branch said, asking not to be named.

The LG official said that the European market, especially Western Europe, has shown strong demand for its OLED TVs, as there are many consumers with high purchasing power.

"In the European market, customers are rapidly moving toward OLED TVs. This shift is particularly faster in Western Europe, where countries such as Germany have high-income levels. Someone might wonder why they would buy such an expensive product, but when plasma display panel (PDP) TVs first came out, the 42-inch PDP TV was priced at around 7,000 euros. Now you can buy two to three 77-inch OLED TVs at that price," the official said.

The official added that consumers can easily compare the difference between LG's OLED TVs and TVs by other makers at the retail chain and most visitors have shown more interest in LG's OLED TVs thanks to their notable picture quality.

LG said that Germany's popular consumer magazine, Stiftung Warentest, gave the LG OLED evo TVs its best rating. Two models received the top rating among 315 models in the magazine's picture and sound quality tests. Also, eight OLED TVs by LG swept the second to ninth highest rankings.

Data also showed that Europe is the largest OLED market, accounting for about 40 percent of OLED TVs sold worldwide. Market tracker Omdia said that sales of OLED TVs in Europe's entire TV market are expected to surpass 20 percent for the first time in 2022. If so, the percentage will nearly double in just two years since 2020 when the figure stood at 11.1 percent.

Omdia added that LG was No. 1 in Europe's OLED TV market last year with an overwhelming 67 percent share. "We expect we can have more than a 60 percent share in the OLED TV market in Europe this year," the LG official said.