OLED TV: Introduction and Industry News

Samsung Display announced that its QD-OLED panels have received verification from UL Solutions for their viewing angle performance under the QuantumView standard.

QuantumView is a verification program that evaluates changes in luminance and color coordinates as the viewing angle shifts from the front in 10-degree increments up to 60 degrees. According to UL's assessment results, Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panels maintained above 60% of front-facing luminance even at a 60-degree angle, while color shift remained below 0.012, indicating minimal change.

In January 2026, Sony announced a plan to spin-out its TV and home audio business to a separate entity, bringing TCL as a 51% stakeholder. 

The two companies today announced that this deal is official, and the agreement has been signed. The new company will be called Bravia, Inc, and indeed TCL will own 51% while Sony will own 49%. Its TVs will still be branded as Sony Bravia TVs, and the headquarters will be located at Sony’s Tokso Osaki office. Bravia Inc. is expected to begin operations in April 2027 (so a year from today exactly).

LG Electronics launched its 2026 OLED TV lineup in Korea, announcing its prices for the first time. Interestingly, some of the models are sold for lower cost from a year ago.

The entry-level OLED B6 for example, starts at 3.29 million Won (around $2,200 USD), while the high-end 83-inch OLED G6 costs 13 million Won ($8,600).

LG Display announced that its WOLED panels have been recognized for their “perfect dimming technology” – earning the industry’s first “100% dimming consistency” verification from UL Solutions. LGD says that this certification objectively demonstrates the superiority of OLED’s pixel-level dimming.

LGD explains that dimming consistency refers to a measurement method that evaluates how effectively a display reproduces content based on its brightness performance. A reference area is set in the center of the screen and is gradually reduced from 1/10 of the panel to 11/1000, 5/1000, and finally 2/1000. The results are expressed as a percentage: if the maximum and minimum brightness values remain the same throughout the process, dimming consistency is 100%. Conversely, as the value decreases, it means that there is light intensity variation within the same screen. In such cases, brightness differs depending on the position of the light source, even for the same color.

Omdia says that Samsung Electronics sold around 2 million OLED TVs in 2025, up 38.1% from 2024. This is a record year for Samsung Electronics in the OLED TV market. Omdia says that Samsung's anti-glare technology is popular with consumers, in addition to the strong gaming performance of Samsung's OLED TVs.

Omdia estimates that the total OLED TV market grew 6% in 2025, and reached 6.43 million units. This means that Samsung's market share is 31%, and is the world's second OLED TV producer after LG Electronics. Sony is the third largest producer, with sales of 560,000 TVs in 2025 (down 15.5% from 2024).

Panasonic announced a strategic partnership with Skyworth, in which the Chinese TV maker will produce, market and sell Panasonic branded TVs. Panasonic itself will provide expertise and quality assurance for these TVs.

The two companies will join forces to develop new high-end OLED TVs. Skyworth is estimated to be the third largest OLED TV producer (following LG Electronics and Sony), but was mostly focused on its domestic market in China. Now this partnership will enable it to grow globally, using Panasonic's well-trusted global TV brand.

Omdia says that the rate of equipment depreciation at display fabs is accelerating, which means that production costs of OLED and LCD panels alike is on the decrease, enabling display makers to increase their profits.

Omdia says that depreciation will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% between 2021 and 2028, for LCD and OLED fab combined (see chart above), with the amount of fully depreciated global FPD manufacturing capacity nearly doubling over that period from approximately 160 million square meters to almost 300 million. This is the result of the slowness in FPD production fabs investment in recent years.

Sony announced today that it plans to spin-out its TV and home audio business to a separate entity. Sony has partnered with China-based TCL that will hold a 51% stake (Sony holds the rest of the company). The new company will continue to use the Sony and Bravia brands.

Sony said that the new JV will be a global company, and will handle the full process from product development and design to manufacturing, sales, logistics, and customer service for its TV and audio products.

Samsung has announced its range of OLED TVs for 2026, utilizing both WOLED and QD-OLED panels. The company will release 4 different ranges, with sizes ranging from 42-inch to 83-inch. Samsung did not disclose many details about the TVs yet.

At the top of the line sits the S99H, Samsung flagship 2026 OLED TV. Available in sizes 55-, 65-, 77- and 83-inches, the 4K 165Hz TVs are based on Samsung's latest QD-OLED panels (except the 83-inch model, which uses LG's a WOLED panel). Interestingly, the TVs have a metal bezel and sports Samsung's Wireless One Connect box.

LG Display announced its latest WOLED TV panel, that reaches a brightness of 4,500 nits (similar to Samsung Display's latest QD-OLEDs). 

The new OLED TV panel is branded as Primary RGB Tandem 2.0. In this panel, red, green and blue OLED emitters are stacked in independent layers. In this new version, LG has utilized an even more refined pixel structure and advanced algorithms, to maximize light efficiency. LGD says that the new RGB Tandem 2.0 panels also incorporate advanced light-absorption and diffusion technology to minimize reflections, delivering the lowest reflection rate among existing displays of just 0.3%.