Technology prices are among the most predictable variables in commerce. New stuff is expensive. Old stuff gets discounted, and the difference between high and low-end prices means that there’s a way in for most budgets.

TVs are a bit of an oddity. As the archetypal tech piece, the centre of any living room, they’re arguably prone to more scrutiny than any other product in the niche. It’s a topic that the media sometimes treats like a mystery. For instance, back in 2023, US news outlet CNN asked why TVs were “cheaper than ever” when everything else had rocketed in price. Similarly, Which? pointed to a “spring TV buying sweetspot” as a great time to get involved, as though it fell upon us like the weather.

So, are TVs really mocking a trend in tech for pushing up prices? The simple answer is “yes”. It’s a lot more nuanced than that, though.

Famously Divided

Entertainment as a whole is in a strange place. The number of streaming devices a person needs to watch two different shows is approaching two, meaning that there’s no one-stop solution for watching TV anymore.

Yahoo! UK seemed to come to the conclusion that six platforms were the sweet spot for content during a February pricing experiment. That’s a combined monthly price of £57.94 for the lowest tiers.

Yet, in some ways, even this famously divided market is becoming more accessible – providing that watching ads is an acceptable sacrifice. The price of streaming TV falls to £43.94 with a collection of ad-supported platforms.

This gulf between the highest and lowest prices keeps the product accessible. Another field of entertainment – casino gaming – offers a similar pricing structure, albeit one scalable to the player’s budget. The UK online casino Sun Bingo offers its table gamers a range of games, depending on their taste. They can play Penny Roulette and Free Chip Blackjack for small wagers, or explore the other options available on the site. Players are free to set their budget at a point that works for them.

‘Almost Disposable’

Of course, TVs are the same. There are expensive TVs and not-so-expensive TVs – but what customers can get for their money has dramatically improved. Technology naturally gets cheaper over time, even as it gets more powerful. The CableCompare website notes that even HD TVs can come in at under $100 (about £75).

The history of inflation in the TV market is where things get interesting. The previous source states that prices have fallen by an average of minus (-)6.57 per cent since 1951. Only twelve years saw inflation increase. Apart from 2020, the last time TV prices climbed was in 1981.

Perhaps the most significant physical change in models over TV’s history is in screen size, from 12-17 inches in 1951 to 50 inches in 2022. That’s a lot of development stuffed into a sub-£100 piece of hardware.

The study concludes that the reason TVs are so cheap is that they’re ‘almost disposable’. Replacement is easier than repair – and waiting a year between one device and the next invariably means a better model can be had for the same price.

Overall, TVs exist in ignorance of inflation – even if other types of entertainment, like streaming platforms, keep pushing their prices up.

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Categories: Articles, Equipment, UHD

Tags: 4K, Smart TV, tv