By Claire Reilly

After the arrival of a number of ultra-premium Ultra High Definition televisions to market over recent months, Chinese brand TCL has announced the launch of a new, aggressively priced 65-inch model that scrapes in below the $5,000 price point.

Edging out the likes of Sony, Samsung and LG on price, the 65-inch TCL E5691 will hit stores from mid-September with an RRP of $4,999.

As reported on consumer technology website CNET this week, JB Hi-Fi has already undercut this competitive price — by $1 — by listing Hisense’s XT880 65-inch Ultra HD Smart 3D TV for $4,998.

Speaking to Current.com.au, TCL’s national sales manager Nick Redmond said TCL had originally planned to release its 65-inch Ultra HD model with a higher price tag, but the pricing of the Hisense model forced its hand.

“We wanted to release at $5,999 but unfortunately we’re a couple of months late to the party here in the Australian market,” said Redmond. “Hisense has gone out at $5,999 [with a 65-inch model] but very quickly the market has re-evaluated it and it’s now sitting at $4,999. Being a Tier 2 market player and trying to build brand equity, we’ve got to sit where the market dictates. So $4,999 is where we will sit.”

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Despite the price-point for TCL’s 65-inch, Redmond insisted the brand was not leading a race to the bottom on price.

“Whilst everyone is first to jump on the fact that TCL has led the market in driving pricing down, we’re not and we don’t want to be seen to be doing that. But we really need to be realistic about what the market is dictating. This is two-fold. Our 65-inch is really to sell the brand story, and it’s there as another form of advertising. Walking into stores seeing high level TCL product, it gives you that good feeling when you look at the standard TCL 65-inch or 55-inch 3D Smart TV.

“But secondly, we want to sell them. It’s not just about putting screens into stores and saying, ‘Alright you can have them for six months and it’s not going to be a revenue generator or turn over product’. We want to get these screens into homes.”

For Redmond, it all comes back to this focus on marketing. Speaking about the way 3D TV was launched in Australia, Redmond said TCL had learned from the industry’s mistakes and was coming to market with a strong Ultra HD marketing program from the beginning.

“We all went to market with 3D technology very quickly, and I don’t think it was marketed very well. You saw 3D technology uptake was very small — it hasn’t had the impact and it wasn’t the price saviour that everybody thought it was going to be in the Australian market. When it comes to Ultra High Definition, we’ve got to be more careful about how we take this to market.

“We’re making sure the marketing material behind it is high cutting edge, so all of our retailers that are supporting us will be getting the specifically-designed 4K stands and they’ll be getting content generators. And we want to hold that price in the market; we want to be seen as a serious player rather than cheap and cheerful Chinese.”

Ultimately, Redmond said TCL was making the investment in the TV space to ensure good quality products were making their way to retail shelves and retailers were still able to get good margins from TCL-branded products.

“You don’t want to be selling a high-end product and having 2 per cent front end, it just doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“We’re all about affordable innovation and this is a story that we’re telling globally — and we’re ensuring that we’re building this brand equity in the Australian market.

“TCL is very serious about putting good investment and good pricing back into the market,” he added. “We have the most amazing product and we need to tell the market that. But we also need to ensure that we’re a serious player in the market, rather than just seen as the One Dollar Shop.”

With a potential price war looming on Ultra HD TV, TCL will clearly be a brand to watch in the space. And with word from Redmond that “TCL is investing heavily in OLED” the rise of the Chinese brands is far from over.

The 65-inch TCL E5691 LED Smart TV will be available from mid-September for RRP $4,999.