(Yicai) March 5 -- China should find ways to get more people to watch television by encouraging greater investment in high-definition displays, improving program content and other means to reverse a steady decline in TV sales, the founder of household appliance giant TCL said at the ongoing Two Sessions, the country’s key annual policy meetings.

China manufactures over half of the world’s television sets and the quality of China-made TVs has improved noticeably in recent years, said Li Dongsheng, who is attending the Two Sessions in Beijing as a member of the National People’s Congress. Around 90 percent of TV sets sold in the country are made locally and China-made TVs are seizing a bigger share of the overseas market.

But sales in China slumped 37 percent last year from five years ago to 37 million units, Li said. Yet TV shipments in North America climbed 12 percent over the same period to 47 million sets.

China’s TV shipments slumped 11.5 percent last year from the previous year, according to data from AVC Revo. While over the same period, sales in Latin America and North America advanced 3.2 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

The TV activation rate, which refers to the number of users who engage in key functions of the product, tumbled to under 30 percent in China in 2022 from 70 percent in 2016, according to a report released by Qianzhan Industrial Research Institute in January.

“Why are China’s television sales so low? Why is the activation rate so low? Why can’t greater value be created,” Li said. “I raise these questions, hoping that all sectors of society can work together to find solutions," he added.

China’s HD displays are among the best in the world, Li said. And the country’s HD fiber-optic network is comparable to that of the US and Europe. But although China has invested heavily in the HD display sector, it has not generated corresponding value.

"Many people say that young people no longer watch television as they are glued to their smartphones and other mobile devices,” Li said. “This is certainly true but the impact is the same worldwide and yet sales are still growing in other countries such as the US and in Europe which also have excellent mobile device connectivity.”

Televisions are a durable consumer good and are not frequently upgraded, hence the shrinking demand, said Wang Xianming, director of TV industry chain research at RUNTO.

To boost China's television market, Li is proposing optimizing the policy environment, improving the review system for films and television series to stimulate more creativity, encouraging and protecting investment in the film sector, cultivating media conglomerates with international competitiveness, and so on.

Editor: Kim Taylor