Go big or go home. That is apparently the feeling with regard to today's TV viewing as sales of televisions with screens 66-inches and larger are going through the roof.
Remember how big that 50-inch screen looked when you first bought it? Well, it looks pretty paltry next to that 70-inch your buddy just purchased. Sales of super-sized TVs are up 50 percent in the past year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), as prices on behemoth flat panels have dropped.
The average price for flat panels has dropped 9 to 11 percent in the last year and that was just enough to get Bill Emery off the couch and into his local Best Buy to take advantage.
"With football season right around the corner it was time," he said, regarding his quest for a larger TV screen experience. "I bought a 70-inch Ultra HD screen Samsung and with the price drop and a couple of gift cards I actually paid less than I did for my 55-inch from a couple of years ago."
According to NPD, during the year that ended April of 2014, over 800,000 65-inch or larger TVs were sold showing a whopping a 69 percent increase over the previous years. For a flat panel market that had stagnated of late, that brought a 50-percent increase and $1.6 billion in sales to an overall television market that came in at an estimated $18 billion.
Interestingly, lower-income buyers are making up the largest portion of the bigger screen sales as NPD points out this segment actually carried the category the last year. Since April of 2013, shoppers with an annual household income $75,000 or less were responsible for 61 percent of the purchases of TV screens 60-inches and larger.
NPD adds that overall, televisions with screens 50-inches and larger accounted for 25 percent of the sets sold in the past 12 months, up from 14 percent in 2012. NPD expects the figure to reach 30 percent this year.
Retailers have certainly taken note of the surge to splurge on super-sized TV's as online retail giant Amazon is planning to feature some 100-inch models later this year, Best Buy is planning on expanding it's TV section in stores nationwide to accommodate the consumer's thirst for larger screens and Chicago-based electronics giant Abt has already begun expanding its warehouse space by nearly 30 percent to accommodate the increased interest in bigger TVs.
Despite the preparedness, some retailers admit they may have been caught of guard by the boom.
"I don't think anyone would have estimated the appetite for the size of these TVs," admitted Luke Motschenbacher, director of Best Buy's TV business.
