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Demand for widescreen televisions is high at LG Electronics and Samsung showrooms as football enthusiasts’ upgrade their screens in preparation for the World Cup which commences today.
BusinessDay findings at Samsung and LG Electronics showrooms in Lagos metropolis revealed an impressive jump in sales in the last few days leading to the World Cup. ‘‘Since Monday people have been coming to buy big screen televisions because of the expected matches,’’ said an attendant at a Samsung store, who gave her name as Ada.
‘‘We did not have this rush last week. That was why we restocked our store. Now, we can even choose to increase the price,’’ Ada said.
The televisions that are in high demand according to the attendant include Skyworth 55inch smart television which sold for N241, 200, Samsung 49-inch smart curve TV which goes for N345,700, Samsung 55-inch smart TV for N386,400, 65 inch Samsung curve smart TV for N1, 005, 950 and 85-inch Samsung UHDTV for N4.5m.
‘‘We had three 85 inch Samsung Television last week but we have just one left,’’ Ada said. ‘‘This is the only one left in all Samsung branches. They refer buyers to this branch for this TV,’’ the attendant said.
‘‘If we see serious buyers that are willing to pay immediately, we could sell the TV for between N4m and N4.3m,’’ she said.
Chibuzor Onyealor, a football lover who had come to purchase an 80-inch TV at Samsung store to enjoy the World Cup matches to the fullest told BusinessDay;
‘‘If I cannot travel to Russia for the match, I can bring the match to my living room. Big screen televisions make you feel you are there and it is an exciting experience.’’
At LG Electronics showrooms in Lagos, LG ultra HD 55inch is in high demand.
‘‘I cannot count the number of people that have bought this TV this week,’’ said Kashim, an attendant at the store. ‘‘The television is specially designed for football match. Even football matches missed can be replayed.’’
According to Kashim, the television sold for N300,000 a week ago, but the company had to slash prices.
‘‘We discounted so people could buy it. People came around last week but could not buy because of the price but some did,’’ he said. ‘‘When they checked back this week and saw the price had gone down to N255,000, they bought. We also cut down the price of all our televisions.’’
Other televisions in demand include 65inches LG OLED TV which sells for N1.3m, 65inches LG Ultra HD for N449,000 and LG HDTV 70inches for N800,000.
But football lovers who cannot afford a brand new television are opting for fairly used ones.
At Westminster, Apapa on Wednesday where everything fairly used are sold, football fans were seen haggling and purchasing mostly widescreen televisions in preparation for the football match.
‘‘Since I cannot buy new a one, I decided to buy this,’’ Oyeyemi, a football lover who purchased a 55-inch television said. ‘‘Matches are more interesting to watch on big screen TVs.’’
Here 60 inch Samsung smart TV is sold for between for N170,000-N180,000 and LG 55-inch television for between N130,000 to N150,000, depending on the buyer’s bargaining power.
‘‘More buyers have been coming since last week but I sold more this week,’’ said Chigozie, a dealer at the market. ‘‘The highest inch sold here is 60 but it is scarce and that is the one people are requesting for more.’’
But televisions retailers are not the only ones smiling to the bank. Multichoice said subscriptions and sales of decoders have been up in the past one week.
‘‘Between last week and now, more people have bought our decoders and it is not only in this branch,’’ said Funmi, an attendant at a Multichoice branch in Lagos. ‘‘We have also seen more people renewing their subscriptions.’’
Multichoice commenced its promo last month that saw the price of DSTV decoders drop to N8,500 from N9,900 with one-month free subscription for the N6,300 plan and the price of GOTV decoder which comes with an antenna and one-month free subscription eased to N5,900.
The FIFA world cup is a global sports fiesta which happens only once in four years. Football remains the most popular sport in Nigeria and so the World Cup matches are expected to command maximum attention for five weeks the tournament lasts. The participation of the Super Eagles in the tournament means that Nigerians will be keenly watching the games. The Super Eagles will be playing their first match against Croatia on Saturday. BusinessDay in Partnership with Visionscape is covering the games live from Russia.
