Bang & Olufsen Launches $8,000 TV for ‘Upper Middle Class’ Couch Potatoes

Bang & Olufsen’s latest product offering, an $8,000 flat-panel television, aims at a rather elusive set of customers: Post-crisis Europeans with euros to burn.

The Danish company hopes to recapture market share from Asian rivals with the Thursday launch of its BeoVision Avant, a 55-inch ultra high-definition TV that automatically tucks itself out of sight when not in use. The speakers slide up into a hatch beneath the screen and the panel rotates on a metal stand to any indiscreet position the viewer pleases.

Chief Executive Tue Mantoni told the Wall Street Journal that the company’s single-product push, its largest in a decade, would mark a return to the company’s “roots,” but those roots will have to push through some rocky terrain, with Europe faltering toward a recovery and global TV sales contracting by 6% last year.