While Samsung Electronics maintained its No. 1 position as a TV-maker in the first half of this year, Chinese rivals seem to be ramping up their game to close the gap.

Market tracker Counterpoint Research said Monday that global TV shipments grew in the April-June period for the first time in four quarters, fueled by an Olympics spending spree. It reached 56 million units in the second quarter this year, up 3 percent on-year.

Samsung took the largest share of 15 percent of total shipments, but it marked the company's lowest quarterly record. Chinese TV supplier TCL came in No. 2 with 11 percent of the shipments share, while another Chinese firm, Hisense, followed with 10 percent. LG Electronics came in fourth with 9 percent.

As the Chinese rivals have been aggressively carving out their portion of the market, Korean firms have been strengthening their footing in the premium TV sector, with larger screens and cutting-edge organic light-emitting diode display products.

During the same period, shipments of premium TVs jumped by 45 percent on-year, also fueled by the Olympics fever.

Samsung and LG topped shipments, gobbling up 33 percent and 18 percent, respectively. But their growth rates slowed compared to their Chinese runner-ups.

For Samsung, it was the first time that its share in the premium segment had dropped below 40 percent. China's Hisense and TCL took 18 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

Shipments of OLED TVs, in particular, grew 21 percent on-year in the second quarter. LG was the unrivaled No. 1 in the market, with 1.34 million shipments, or 53 percent of the total share.

To widen the gap with the Chinese runner-ups, Korean companies are expected to continue to reinforce the OLED TV lineups, introducing new features involving artificial intelligence and form factors.

Underscoring how it topped the global TV market, taking 28.8 percent of market share by revenue, Samsung Electronics said Monday it will stick to its sales strategy to focus on AI TVs, high-value-added TVs priced at over $2,500 and large-screen TVs.

LG said it will maintain its leadership in the premium market with next-generation products with transparent screens, bendable screens and wireless TVs