Samsung released its first OLED TV in nearly a decade last year, using a QD-OLED panel made by Samsung Display. However, the company also seems interested in making TVs using LG’s WRGB OLED panels. After holding talks with LG for a few months last year, the deal went on a back burner. However, it seems like the companies have now resumed discussions.
It is reported that Samsung Visual Display (Samsung’s TV business) has resumed talks with LG Display to buy the latter’s WRGB OLED panels for its future TVs. Industry insiders claim that the two companies are trying to sign a partnership by the end of the first half of 2023. Samsung plans to buy around 200,000 to 300,000 OLED panels from LG Display and launch OLED TVs based on those panels by next year.
Samsung and LG Display want to stomp competition from Chinese firms in OLED TV segment
The talks between the two firms started last year but ended abruptly due to pricing and contract period disagreements. However, industry experts expect the deal to go through this time as they both want Chinese TV and OLED manufacturing firms at bay. Samsung needs to improve its market share in the OLED TV segment, while LG Display needs more buyers for its OLED panels as its business reported a loss of KRW 2.01 trillion ($1.57 billion) in Q4 2022.
Yi Choong-hoon, UBI Research CEO, said, “It is highly likely that Samsung Electronics and LG Display will strike a deal before the second half of this year starts. It is also a matter of survival. China is aggressively clawing its way up in the TV and display market, and it is important for Korean companies to make demand and supply for each other to compete.”
Samsung launched its first-ever OLED TV in 2013, but it stopped making them the following year due to yield-related issues. To make meaningful progress, Samsung reportedly needs to sell 3 million OLED TVs yearly, but Samsung Display can only make 1.5 million QD-OLED panels. So, it has to buy WRGB OLED panels from LG, which can produce around 10 million OLED panels.
