The era of Japanese color TVs has "completely ended."

Author | Huang Yu Editor | Wang Xiaojuan Today, TCL, which is making waves on the international stage, will never forget the painful price it paid twenty-two years ago by acquiring the TV business of French home appliance giant Thomson. That acquisition led to the greatest crisis in TCL’s history, nearly bringing the company down. But things always have two sides. It was precisely because of that acquisition that TCL’s path to global expansion opened up. In the words of TCL founder and chairman Li Dongsheng, “That acquisition made TCL choke on a gulp of water, but it also taught us how to swim.” Twenty-two years later, with hopes to establish five new TCLs overseas, Li Dongsheng once again leads TCL in acquiring the TV business of another digital giant. On January 20th, TCL’s subsidiary TCL Electronics and Sony simultaneously announced that the two sides had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance the establishment of a joint venture in home entertainment: TCL will hold a 51% stake, Sony 49%. The joint venture will take over Sony’s home entertainment business, covering research and development, design, manufacturing, sales, logistics, and customer service for TV and home audio systems. They will continue to use the two major TV brands “Sony” and “BRAVIA”. This means TCL will obtain controlling and operational rights over Sony’s TV business. According to the plan, the formal agreement will be signed by the end of March 2026, and the new company is expected to officially begin operations in April 2027. This is not only another expansion of TCL’s global footprint, but also a landmark event in the history of the global television industry, signaling the complete end of the Japanese TV era dominated by Sony, Sharp, and Panasonic. Sigmaintell Consulting also believes that if the joint venture is smoothly advanced and TCL Electronics obtains controlling rights over Sony TV, this acquisition would be a rare case in the past twenty years of mergers among top global TV brands, having a comprehensive and far-reaching impact on the worldwide TV market. Behind this industry-shaking acquisition lies the careful deliberation of two giants at a turning point in history. It is clear that, amid a structural upgrade in the terminal consumer market, consumers are demanding higher-quality audiovisual experiences, leading to a slowing overall growth in the TV market but showing structural growth in larger screen sizes and higher-end products. Industrial Securities research notes that since 2020, domestic and international TV market sales have slowed, with the industry’s main growth coming from price increases. High-end upgrades have become the mainstream development direction for the TV sector. For a long time, although Chinese brands have scale in the global market, they still have shortcomings in high-end brand premium capabilities. Sony is synonymous with “high-end technology” in the global TV market, with its XR image chip, quality tuning tech, and audio-visual ecosystem serving as its core strength. Acquiring Sony will undoubtedly strengthen TCL’s position in the high-end TV market and further increase its global market share. According to Sigmaintell Consulting, global TV shipments in 2025 are expected to reach 220.6 million units, down 0.7% year-on-year. Samsung will remain the champion with 35.3 million units and a market share rising slightly to about 16%. TCL will follow closely with 30.4 million units, up 5.4% year-on-year, becoming the most prominent top brand with a market share of 13.8%. Hisense (including Toshiba) ranks third with 29.3 million units and a market share of 13.3%. Sigmaintell data suggests that if the joint venture starts and operates smoothly in 2027, TCL and Sony’s combined market share could reach 16.7%, potentially surpassing Samsung to become number one globally, radically altering decades of competitive dynamics among global TV brands and marking the first time a Chinese brand reaches for the top spot. Additionally, TCL Group’s semiconductor display panel company, TCL CSOT, is also a major supplier to Sony TV. After the acquisition, Sony TV’s panel supply chain is expected to tilt heavily toward TCL CSOT, achieving deep vertical integration from panel production to end products. TrendForce believes the two sides can complement each other in branding, technology, and key component supply chains. Sony can leverage TCL’s strength in Mini LED supply, shifting its high-end products towards Mini LED TV in the medium term, and potentially making TCL CSOT’s OLED TV panel production output a global export channel in the long term. For Sony, selling its TV business to TCL is undoubtedly the optimal solution after careful consideration. Sony has been deeply involved in the global TV market for over 60 years. In 1990, its TV business held more than 20% global market share. TrendForce noted that Sony TV shipments peaked in 2010 at 21.5 million units, with an 11.4% market share, ranking third globally. However, in the past decade or so, as Chinese brands rapidly rose in the global market and Sony’s cost efficiency and supply chain integration declined, Sony’s global TV shipments have dropped year by year. According to data from Sigmaintell Consulting, in 2025 Sony’s global TV shipments are estimated at 4.1 million units, a year-on-year drop of 13.3%. By transferring controlling rights, Sony can leverage TCL’s strong supply chain and manufacturing efficiency to improve product competitiveness, while shifting its focus away from heavy hardware manufacturing to more profitable OTT streaming platforms, video, and gaming content ecosystems. The decline of Sony’s TV business mirrors the collective withdrawal of Japanese TV brands from center stage. Looking back over the past few decades, the global TV landscape has evolved from “Japanese dominance” to “China-Korea rivalry.” In the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese TV brands led by Sony ruled the globe. Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, and Toshiba were not only benchmarks for TV technology but also synonymous with premium quality and prestige. In the golden age of Japanese TV technology, Sony’s Trinitron technology almost set the standard for color TV picture quality. At that time, a 29-inch Sony Trinitron TV sold for more than 10,000 RMB in the Chinese market. At their peak, Japanese brands once held nearly 40% of global TV market share. However, as display technology shifted from CRT to LCD, Japanese companies fell behind in supply chain integration and cost control. Subsequently, Samsung and LG from Korea surged ahead through aggressive investment in panel technology. Over the past decade, Chinese firms have risen quickly on the back of strong domestic manufacturing and integrated panel supply chains (such as BOE and TCL CSOT). Before Sony's sale, Hisense had already acquired Toshiba's TV business, Foxconn bought Sharp, and last year Panasonic’s global CEO Yuki Kusumi stated the company was considering selling its TV business. Today, the handover of Sony’s TV controlling rights officially marks the end of the once-glorious era of Japanese color TV. Risk Warning and Disclaimer Markets have risks, investment needs caution. 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