In This Article
- Sony sold 51% of its smart TV and home entertainment division to Chinese TCL Electronics in a deal starting in April 2027
- The Bravia name stays, but TCL’s tech and factories will power everything
- Sony’s TV market share crashed from 9.5% in 2021 to just 5.4% today, ranking fifth globally
Remember Trinitron? Not the technology that died years ago. The pride. The legacy. Sony has confidence it can still win in the TV and home entertainment industry. That confidence is now vanishing.
Sony just announced they are entering into a ‘joint venture’ and handing over majority control of its home entertainment business, yes, the legendary Bravia brand, to TCL Electronics, China’s display manufacturing giant. TCL gets 51%. Sony keeps 49% and whatever dignity they can salvage.
This isn’t a partnership. This is a surrender with a fancy press release. Though I personally would love to see the innovation this joint operation will bring to the TV and home entertainment industry, we would be getting the best of both worlds, especially with TCL’s panels.
Anyways, let’s look into what’s happening…
Numbers and Stats Don’t Like: Sony Was Getting Destroyed
Sony ranked fifth globally in the TV business revenue with just 5.4% market share in 2024. Yes, Fifth. Behind Samsung, LG, TCL, and Hisense. In 2021, Sony held 9.5% of the market. They lost nearly half of their market share in just three years.
Meanwhile, TCL is racing to become the world’s second-largest TV brand. Chinese manufacturers are smart. They’re not competing, they’re crushing legacy players with massive factories, brilliant display tech, and prices Sony can’t touch.
In a market where premium TVs were supposed to be Sony’s safe zone, they’re getting beaten by Chinese companies that figured out how to deliver 90% of the quality at 50% of the price.
What TCL Actually Gets (Hint: Everything Important You Need To Know)
The joint venture will handle product design, manufacturing, shipping, and customer service for TVs and home audio gear. Which means TCL controls the entire operation.
TCL will sell TVs with Sony and Bravia branding while using TCL’s display technology and panels. Sony will bring their picture and audio processing expertise. TCL brings the actual screens, the factories, the worldwide shipping network, and the cost magic that Sony gave up when they stopped making their own panels and started using Samsung and LG panels.
TCL contributes cutting-edge display tech, giant global factories, and a complete supply chain, all at an incredible cost efficiency. Sony contributes brand equity and operational expertise to a business they’ve been bleeding money for years.
TCL Chairperson Du Juan called this joint venture “a unique opportunity to combine the strengths of both companies.”
This is the corporate version of saying, “You can ride along, but I’m driving.”
Japan’s Electronics Giants Keep Collapsing
Toshiba sold its TV division to China’s Hisense in 2018. Hitachi quit domestic TV sales in 2018. Panasonic pulled back TV production. Sharp was taken over by Foxconn in 2016. Sony was the last one standing. The premium brand. The company that defined what quality TVs meant for generations with Trinitron CRTs and then Bravia flat panels.
Now? Sony is running away from low-profit consumer electronics toward software, entertainment, and content creation. In gaming, Sony PlayStation generates $28 billion in annual revenue. Sony Music and Sony Pictures bring in another $20 billion combined.
When it comes to manufacturing TVs? That’s a tiny footnote that has been actively hurting their overall business figures and financial statements.
What many people aren’t aware of is that Sony stopped making their own LCD and OLED panels years ago. They’ve been buying parts from competitors, like LG and Samsung panels, while charging premium prices, hoping customers would pay extra just for the logo.
Yes, actually, this technique worked for a while.
The Bravia brand survived mainly because customers were willing to pay more for top-tier picture and sound quality, and because of Sony’s connection to the filmmaking and premium camera industry.
But the premium only works if you can actually justify charging more. Especially when TCL is capable of manufacturing 98-inch SQD Mini LED TVs with nearly identical picture quality at affordable prices, brand loyalty dies fast.
What This Means for You
Short term? Nothing changes. The companies plan to finalize everything by March 2026, whereas the joint venture and operations start in April 2027, so current Bravia TVs available in the market are still fully engineered, manufactured, and sold by Sony.
Long term? Every Sony TV you buy will be a TCL TV with Sony processors, chips, software, and branding. TCL’s advanced display technology will power the hardware. Sony will provide picture and audio processing, for which they are well-known in the industry.
TCL undoubtedly makes genuinely excellent displays. Their latest SQD Mini LED technology is seriously impressive. Their manufacturing game is unbeatable. Imagine if Sony’s image processing runs on TCL panels, you might actually get better TVs at lower prices.
But it won’t be Sony. Not really.
What’s left is a logo on a box designed, built, and shipped by a company that spent the last decade eating Sony’s lunch.
The Sony-TCL joint venture is expected to launch in April 2027, pending regulatory approval. Final agreements are targeted for March 2026.
