Walk into any Best Buy this month and you'll spot a 65-inch OLED tagged at $1,699 — a number that would've bought a decent used sedan when your parents were your age.
The sticker shock is real, and it's not your imagination.
Television prices have quietly crept back up after a decade of race-to-the-bottom discounting, and Hollywood's streaming wars are partly to blame.
Here's the twist nobody saw coming: the pandemic-era binge of cheap panels is over.
Manufacturers overproduced during lockdown, flooded the market with budget sets, and then got stuck with inventory.
Now companies like LG, Samsung, and Sony are pivoting to premium — bigger screens, brighter Mini-LED backlights, and AI upscaling chips that they can actually charge for.
Studios spent billions on shows like "Stranger Things" and "The Last of Us," and they want you to watch them on something worthy.
A 98-inch TCL now runs over $5,000, and Samsung's 8K flagship can hit five figures.
Even mid-tier 55-inch sets that sold for $300 in 2019 are creeping toward $500.
But the real wallet-drainer isn't the TV itself — it's everything around it.
A soundbar, a streaming stick, a wall mount, and an HDMI 2.1 cable can add $400 before you've watched a single episode.
And if you're eyeing that new 4K sports package for NFL Sundays?
Black Friday doorbusters still exist, but they're often stripped-down models made specifically for the sale — fewer HDMI ports, dimmer panels, no local dimming.
Shoppers who compare specs closely find the "deal" isn't the same TV that got the glowing reviews.
Wait for Super Bowl season, when prices historically dip.
Skip the extended warranty unless you've got a toddler and a Wii remote.
And remember: a $700 TV that lasts eight years beats a $300 one that dies in two.
The bottom line is that we're paying for the golden age of television — literally, at the register.
Streamers want cinematic quality, and manufacturers are happy to sell it back to us one panel at a time.
Just don't let the salesman talk you into the 8K model.
Final Thoughts
Nothing you're streaming is even shot in it yet.