In the third quarter of this year the volume of LED-backlit LCD TV sets sold in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) went past the volume of CCFL-backlit sets for the first time, reaching 52%, according to figures from research consultancy, Meko, the specialists in display markets in Europe.

This shift helped ASPs stay close to the level of Q2, despite falling prices, as consumers continued to buy more of the larger sized sets, with 40" and 42" sets with FullHD being the category with the highest value.

Compared to Q3 last year, the TV market in EMEA was down by 2.9%. Overall the market grew quarter on quarter by 6.5% in Q3 to a shade under 15.9 million sets, with most of the growth coming from the MEA region and the East. However, the West remained flat, with several markets, including the UK, well down. Considering that this year's Q3 followed on from a very poor Q2, and Q3 was especially bad last year because of a hangover of inventory from the World Cup, the result was poorer than Meko had expected.

LCD remains dominant with 14 million units and 88% of the market. PDP continues to suffer, with sales down 2.8% QoQ and 19.8% down year on year.

Samsung was a significant winner, as was Philips, which had the best quarter for volume for some time and both of these brands were up on their sales in Q3 last year. LG and Sony were down and Panasonic was slightly down. Between them, LG and Samsung took 54% of the market by volume, more or less matching the companies' share of the LCD business.

Bob Raikes, Managing Director of Meko commented, "The only good thing that can be said of Q3 is that any spare inventory was flushed from the supply chain, so there could be some recovery in Q4 as demand in stores will turn into sell in for the brands."

Monitor sales volume in EMEA continued to slide in the second quarter of 2011, with a drop of 6.5% compared to the same period last year, according to European displays specialist, Meko.

This is the fourth consecutive quarter of decline.

Thanks to the stronger commercial sector the numbers have not been as bad as some had expected but this meant that brands with heavy reliance on the consumer sector saw their numbers dip more than those with a stronger commercial presence.

Azhar Mohd-Hashim, Desktop Monitor Analyst for Meko explained, "Consumers are reluctant to spend their money in a climate of increasing inflation coupled with low wage rises. With consumer demand unlikely to rebound in a big way anytime soon, and the commercial sector's volume unlikely to be high enough to compensate for its losses, the total volume for 2011 is expected to be 6% lower than last year."

Germany and France, despite showing good economic growth prospects in recent months, continue to see consumers shying away from investing in new monitors.

Middle-East and Africa became the largest region in Q2 and easing of tension and re-building in the area will see opportunities grow here, with monitor volumes in Egypt increasing by nearly 50% over the same period last year.