A new poll from the National Retail Federation (that’s NRF, not NFL), shows that 7.7 percent of Americans plan to buy a new TV on which to watch Super Bowl LI one week from Sunday.
While that sounds impressive, the figure is flat from 2016, when the same percentage of respondents indicated their intention to purchase a new set for the Big Game. It’s unclear how many actually pulled the trigger last year.
NRF’s Super Bowl Spending Survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, surveyed 7,591 consumers Jan. 4-11 about their Super Sunday plans. Among the other findings:
* an estimated 188.5 million plan to watch the Falcons face off against the Patriots in Houston, roughly flat from last year;
* total Super Bowl-related consumer spending is down 9 percent, from $15.5 billion ($82 on average) in 2016, to $14.1 billion ($75 on average) this year; and
* food and beverages remain the top planned purchase (cited by 79.5 percent of viewers), while furniture, including home entertainment centers, placed last, appearing only 3.3 percent of shopping lists.
To score with that 7.7 percent of would-be TV buyers, retailers are kicking off another year of Super Bowl promotions. For Walmart, that means going long on Vizio, with a 4K SmartCast assortment that runs from 50 inches for $398 (online only) to a 70-inch set for $998.
Other 4K options include TCL’s 55-inch Roku model for $428 and a 50-inch Philips for $398.
For the HD crowd, Walmart is offering 60-inch Sharp-and RCA-branded TVs for $499 and $430, respectively, and 50-inch, online-only units from Hisense (with Roku, for $330, down from $400) and RCA ($299).
For its part, Best Buy is currently touting savings of up to 25 percent on select LG 4K sets for the Big Game, including $1,000 off a curved, 65-inch OLED TV with HDR (model OLED65C6P) for a sale price of $3,000, and hundreds off that for open-box inventory.
