Best Time to Buy a TV in 2026: Sale Events, Price Drops, and Insider Tips

The best time to buy a TV is during Super Bowl season (January-February) or Black Friday (November), when discounts reach 30-50% on premium models. This guide covers every sale window throughout the year, a month-by-month calendar, and strategies to stack coupons with sale timing for maximum savings.

US tariffs on consumer electronics are pushing TV prices up in 2026, which means the timing of your purchase matters more than it has in years. TV brands are expected to pass those costs to buyers, so the deals that were normal in 2024 may not be as deep by mid-year. The good news is that right now, in the first quarter of 2026, discounts are still running at 30-50% off on premium models. That window won’t last forever.

Here’s what the full year looks like, and how to make the most of it.

The Short Answer: Two Windows Beat All Others

If you want the lowest price and don’t care which model, shop in late January or November. Those two windows reliably produce the best discounts of the year on the widest selection of TVs.

Super Bowl season (January through early February) and Black Friday (all of November) are when retailers compete hardest on price. Electronics averaged 28-30% off across Black Friday 2024, and Super Bowl 2026 deals are hitting 30-50% on OLED and QLED models right now. Both windows exist for the same reason: the annual TV model cycle. Manufacturers announce next year’s lineup at CES in January, new models hit stores in March, and retailers spend the intervening months aggressively clearing prior-year inventory.

So the question isn’t just “when is the best time.” It’s “what do I actually need and when is it cheapest.” Here’s the breakdown.

Super Bowl Season (January and February): Biggest Pre-Spring Deals

Sales start in early January and run through Super Bowl Sunday. This year that means the deals are live right now, with Presidents Day in mid-February adding another bump before things slow down in March.

TV manufacturers spend November and December building up inventory for the holiday season. By January, they need to clear that stock before new 2026 models arrive. The result is steep cuts on still-current hardware. The LG C5 OLED dropped from $2,000 to $1,200 at Best Buy this January (40% off), and Samsung’s S90F went from $2,500 to $1,400 (44% off). Those aren’t fake numbers inflated to make the discount look good – those were real prices for those models earlier in the year.

NRF data from 2025 shows that 10% of the 203.4 million Americans who planned to watch the Super Bowl expected to buy a TV as part of their Super Bowl spending. That’s roughly 20 million buyers in a narrow window. Retailers know this, which is why the competition on price gets aggressive.

Best stores to check during this window: Best Buy, Walmart, Samsung.com, and LG.com. Manufacturer sites often match big-box prices and throw in extras like gift cards or extended warranties. Don’t overlook those extras – they sometimes close a $100-$200 gap between two similar offers.

Spring Model Release Window (March to May): New Tech or Last Year at a Discount

Here’s where the year gets complicated. Starting in March, new TV models arrive at their highest prices. At the same time, prior-year stock gets marked down further to move it out. You’re choosing between two entirely different things.

If you want the latest hardware, spring is when to buy it. But you’ll pay full launch price. If you want the best value, spring closeouts on prior-year flagships can be excellent. A 2025 LG C4 or Samsung QN90B in spring 2026 is still a superb TV and the discounts once new models land are often 20-30% deeper than the January sales.

Memorial Day (late May) adds another formal discount event on top of the spring clearance. It’s the first major holiday sale of the year, and it tends to clean out any remaining prior-year stock. Once they’re gone at closeout prices, they don’t come back.

The thing is, most people can’t tell the difference between a 2024 and 2025 TV in normal viewing. The main improvement each year is usually peak brightness. If you don’t watch a lot of HDR content in a bright room, the brightness gain probably doesn’t matter to you.

Prime Day (July): Mid-Year Sweet Spot for Smart TVs

Amazon Prime Day usually falls in July, and it’s consistently one of the strongest TV sale events of the year. Mid-range TVs, Amazon Fire TV models, and Roku TVs tend to see the sharpest cuts.

But it’s not just Amazon. Best Buy, Target, and Walmart run competing sales during the same window. By July, prior-year TV models are six months into their discount cycle, which means prices have had more time to drop than they had in January. You’ll often see the same TVs that were 30% off in February now at 35-40% off, or even more on models that didn’t sell well in the first half of the year.

Samsung’s Frame TV consistently gets solid Prime Day deals. If you’ve been waiting on that one, July is usually a better bet than waiting for Black Friday.

One practical reason to buy in July instead of November: if you need a TV for fall sports season, you’ll have it set up and ready. Buying in November means your new TV arrives in the middle of the season you bought it for.

Black Friday and November: The Deepest Discounts of the Year

Black Friday isn’t a day anymore. It runs all of November and sometimes bleeds into late October.

Electronics averaged 28-30% off during Black Friday 2024, with high-end OLED TVs often seeing $300-$600 off on 65-inch-plus models. Circana reported that total US consumer technology spending grew 3.5% during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weeks in 2024. Notably, ultra-large TVs (75 inches and up) drove a lot of that – Circana’s research showed a surge in 75-inch-plus purchases driven by deep discounts. If you’ve been eyeing a big screen, November is the time.

Tracking deals across hundreds of stores in past years, a pattern stands out: the true best prices on TVs tend to land in the week before Thanksgiving, not on Black Friday itself. By the time Black Friday actually arrives, some models are already sold out at the best prices. Set a price alert before November starts.

US online Black Friday sales hit $11.8 billion in 2025 (Adobe Analytics), up from $10.8 billion in 2024. TVs are consistently one of the top-selling categories.

Watch Out for Black Friday TV Derivatives

Here’s something most TV buying guides skip: some manufacturers create special models just for Black Friday. These “derivative” TVs share a model name with a flagship line but have lower specs – fewer local dimming zones, slower processors, or fewer HDMI ports.

The giveaway is the model number. Search it on RTINGS.com, Wirecutter, or CNET. If there are no reviews, the TV was built for that sale and wasn’t sent out for review. That’s a red flag. You might be paying $400 for a TV that looks like a $700 model but performs like a $300 one.

Stick to model numbers you can find third-party reviews for. A $450 reviewed TV is almost always the better buy over a $350 mystery model.

Other Good Windows: Labor Day and Cyber Monday

Labor Day (first Monday in September) brings reliable mid-range deals. Retailers are gearing up for fall and running clearance on summer-pattern models. The discounts aren’t as dramatic as Black Friday, but if you need a TV in September, you won’t be paying full price.

Cyber Monday extends Black Friday pricing with online-exclusive deals. Some of the best prices on OLED TVs appear on Cyber Monday when retailers have already cleared weekend inventory and are pushing remaining stock. If you miss the best Black Friday price on a specific model, check Cyber Monday – the same model sometimes resurfaces at the same price or lower.

Month-by-Month TV Buying Calendar

How to Get the Best TV Deal: Stack Coupons, Cashback, and Sale Timing

Most TV buying guides stop at “wait for Black Friday.” That’s step one, not the full picture.

From processing millions of coupon codes across stores we track, a consistent pattern shows up around major TV sale events: the shoppers who stack discount layers end up 8-15% below the advertised sale price. The advertised price is your starting floor, not your final price.

Here’s how to build the stack:

Step 1: Identify your target TV and set a price alert now. CamelCamelCamel works for Amazon. Google Shopping shows price history across retailers. You want to know the real baseline price before any sale, so you can verify the discount is genuine when it hits.

Step 2: Check Best Buy coupon codes on DontPayFull for the retailer you plan to buy from. Best Buy, Walmart, and Samsung all run coupon codes around major sale events. An extra 5-10% off on top of an existing sale happens more often than people realize.

Step 3: Activate a cashback portal before you buy. Rakuten, TopCashback, and similar services offer 2-6% back on electronics purchases. Activate before you click through to the store – the cashback is tracked from that click.

Step 4: Pay with a card that earns bonus points on electronics. Many Visa and Mastercard rewards cards give 3-5% back on electronics purchases. That stacks on top of everything else.

A realistic stack on a $1,200 TV: 10% off coupon ($120 off) plus 4% cashback ($48) plus 3% card rewards ($32) = $200 saved on top of an already-discounted sale price. Worth the 10 minutes of setup.

What most guides miss is that Best Buy offers a 15-day price match guarantee. Buy at a sale price, then watch the price for two weeks. If it drops, request the difference. This isn’t a secret, but most people don’t use it.

Should You Buy Now or Wait? The 2026 Tariff Factor

This is the question that makes 2026 different from past years.

US reciprocal tariffs introduced in 2025 are expected to raise TV retail prices in the second half of the year. TrendForce’s research indicates TV brands are likely to pass these costs to consumers, which could reduce how deep the discounts run by summer and fall 2026.

So the calculus is different than usual. Normally, “wait for Black Friday” is safe advice. This year, a strong Super Bowl deal in January or February may actually be a better price than what November offers if tariff-driven price increases have settled in by then.

If you see a TV you want at 40%+ off right now, it’s worth taking seriously. The assumption that “a better deal is always coming” may not hold in 2026 the way it has in previous years. Keep an eye on whether manufacturers announce retail price increases for their 2026 model lines – that’s the signal that the tariff impact is flowing through to consumers.

5 TV Shopping Tips That Work Year-Round

Buy the previous year’s model. Every major TV brand (LG, Samsung, Sony, TCL, Hisense) releases new models every year at CES. Once new models ship in spring, prior-year models drop in price. The difference between a 2024 and 2025 TV is usually subtle. For most viewers, the 2024 model at 30% off is the smarter buy.

Use price history before any sale. A “50% off” label means nothing if the original price was inflated. Check Google Shopping’s price history or CamelCamelCamel before buying anything. The real discount is measured against what the TV was actually selling for three months ago, not the suggested retail price printed on the box.

Check price match policies. Best Buy matches competitor prices for 15 days after purchase. If you buy at a good price and it drops further, call or chat with support and request the difference. Walmart and Target have similar policies with shorter windows. This is essentially a safety net against buyer’s remorse.

See it in person if you can. TV displays photograph and describe differently than they look in a room. A 65-inch TV in a store often looks smaller than you expected. Going in-store lets you calibrate size and get a real sense of picture quality before committing.

Avoid unreviewed holiday-exclusive models. A TV that exists only on a Black Friday flyer with no third-party reviews is a risk. The $249 “doorbusters” from unfamiliar brands or suspiciously model-number-modified versions of known brands are rarely worth it, even at that price. A reviewed budget model from TCL or Hisense at $350 will outperform most $250 mystery models.

Frequently Asked Questions

What month are TVs cheapest?

November is consistently the cheapest month for TVs overall, with Black Friday deals running the entire month. January-February is a close second, especially for premium OLED models. If you can only choose one window, November gives the widest selection at the deepest discounts.

Is it better to buy a TV on Black Friday or during Super Bowl season?

Both windows produce comparable prices on premium models. Black Friday has a wider selection and deeper discounts on budget TVs. Super Bowl season focuses more on premium and large-screen TVs. If you want a budget TV under $400, Black Friday wins. For an OLED or QLED over $1,000, both windows are similar – whichever you hit first is probably fine.

Do TV prices drop after the Super Bowl?

Yes, but not dramatically. Prices tend to stay relatively low through February and March as retailers clear out remaining prior-year inventory. Once new models are fully in stock (typically April), prices stabilize until the next major sale event in July.

When do new TV models come out each year?

New TV models are announced at CES in January and typically arrive in stores starting in March and April. LG, Samsung, Sony, TCL, and Hisense all follow this cycle. Once new models ship, prior-year models go on sale.

Are Black Friday TV deals real or are they inflated prices?

Most deals from major retailers (Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, Samsung.com) are real. The risk is Black Friday-exclusive TV models created specifically for the sale – those sometimes have lower specs than their model name suggests. Stick to TVs with independent reviews from RTINGS.com or Wirecutter and you’ll avoid the fake deals.

Should I wait for Prime Day to buy a TV?

If you’re buying a mid-range TV in the $400-$800 range, Prime Day in July is an excellent time. If you’re looking at a premium 65-inch OLED over $1,500, Black Friday will likely have better prices. Prime Day is particularly good for Amazon Fire TV and Roku TV models.

Which stores have the best TV deals?

Best Buy runs the most consistent TV deals year-round with reliable coupon codes, price match, and frequent sales. Amazon has the deepest Prime Day TV deals. Walmart competes hard on Black Friday with aggressive prices on budget models. For manufacturer deals, Samsung.com and LG.com occasionally match big-box prices and add extras like gift cards.

What is the best size TV to buy for the money right now?

65 inches is the sweet spot for value right now. The price gap between 55-inch and 65-inch TVs has narrowed significantly over the past few years. A 65-inch mid-range TV often costs only $50-$100 more than the 55-inch version of the same model, which makes the upgrade an easy choice for most living rooms.

Sources

1. Red Stag Fulfillment – Average Black Friday Discounts: Analysis of average electronics discounts during Black Friday, showing 28-30% average in 2024
2. Circana – Black Friday and Cyber Monday Technology Sales: US consumer technology spending data for Black Friday-Cyber Monday 2024 (3.5% growth)
3. Circana – Ultra-Large TV Purchases: Research on 75-inch-plus TV unit sales growth driven by discounts
4. TrendForce – US Tariff Impact on TV Prices: Analysis of how US tariffs are expected to affect TV retail pricing in 2025-2026
5. NRF Super Bowl Consumer Spending (nrf.com): National Retail Federation survey data showing 10% of 203.4M Super Bowl viewers planned TV purchases in 2025
6. RTINGS.com – When To Buy A TV: TV pricing cycle and buying timing analysis
7. Adobe Analytics Black Friday data: US online Black Friday sales data showing $11.8 billion in 2025

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