On January 20, Sony Corporation and TCL Electronics Holdings Limited signed a memorandum of understanding. Both parties confirmed their intention to establish a joint venture to take over Sony's home entertainment business, with TCL holding a 51% stake and Sony holding a 49% stake. The joint venture will conduct integrated business operations globally, covering product development, design, manufacturing, sales, logistics, and customer service for products including TVs and home audio systems.
The announcement stated that in the future, the new company's products, including TVs and home audio systems, will be empowered by the "Sony" and "BRAVIA™" brands. According to Sony's brand integration strategy since 2024, home entertainment and other businesses have been unified under the "BRAVIA" brand internally, covering a complete ecosystem from display and audio to content services. Based on the equity structure, TCL is expected to take the lead in the "Sony" TV brand, marking a milestone in the development of China's TV industry.
Data from the "2025 Mini LED Consumer and Automotive Application Research White Paper" by AskTech shows that the top ten global TV brands are Samsung, Hisense, TCL, LG, Xiaomi, Skyworth, Vizio, Philips + AOC, Sony, and Haier. Among Japanese TV brands, only Sony maintains a relatively high market share. If the Sony brand is integrated into the TCL system, their combined market share will surpass that of Samsung.
Global TV Brand Shipment Status in the First Three Quarters of 2025
▋ The Curtain Falls on Japanese High-End TVs
Japanese TV brands were once the benchmark for global display technology, with Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba defining the standards for high-end home appliances. However, due to their high-end positioning and soaring costs, they struggled to achieve cost-effectiveness in the mid-to-low-end market. Meanwhile, the high-end market was squeezed by South Korean brands such as Samsung and LG. Today, Japanese brands are collectively retreating, with most having exited or sold their TV businesses.
As for other brands, Toshiba sold its TV business (the REGZA brand) to China's Hisense in 2017, establishing a joint venture, TVS REGZA, with Hisense holding a 95% stake. Toshiba has now completely exited the TV hardware sector, focusing on core businesses such as semiconductors and energy, and delisted in 2023.
Sharp was acquired by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) in 2016, becoming a brand under Hon Hai. In 2024, it closed its TV panel factory in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, completely exiting panel manufacturing.
Although Panasonic has not completely exited, it has significantly scaled back its TV business, focusing on the domestic Japanese market and the high-end segment, resulting in a sharp decline in its global presence. In early 2025, there were rumors that it was considering selling or scaling back its TV business, but it later clarified that "no decision has been made."
Mitsubishi Electric exited the consumer TV market in 2018, focusing on commercial displays and industrial equipment. Funai Electric once acquired part of Philips' business. Currently, the bankruptcy liquidation of Funai Electric is still ongoing, and its core home appliance business has basically ceased operations.
This joint venture layout between Sony and TCL also represents the deep cooperation between the last Japanese giant independently operating a TV business and a Chinese enterprise, marking the complete end of the era of Japanese home appliances. This cooperation is essentially a strategic compromise by Sony regarding its TV business. In recent years, although Sony's BRAVIA TVs have enjoyed a strong technological reputation, their global shipments in 2025 were only 4.1 million units, with a market share of less than 2%. The business has long been in a state of marginal profitability and has been classified as a "non-growth business."
At the same time, as Mini LED TVs gradually penetrate the mid-to-low-end market, and SQD-Mini LED and RGB-Mini LED further deepen the high-end market, Chinese brands such as TCL have also risen with their scaled supply chains and rapid market response capabilities.
▋ TCL's Global Footprint
For TCL, this cooperation is not only about integrating Sony's technology and brand but also deeply aligns with its own "globalization + high-end" strategic layout.
In the Japanese TV market, Hisense enhanced its global footprint by acquiring Toshiba's TV business in 2017. At that time, Hisense urgently needed Toshiba's brand licensing, local Japanese channels, and some technology patents to accelerate its internationalization process. This approach of "borrowing a ship to go global" also significantly boosted Hisense's market share in Japan. According to data for the first half of 2025, the Hisense system ranked first in market share in Japan.
Unlike Hisense's acquisition of Toshiba, the core of the TCL joint venture lies in two-way empowerment. On the one hand, it involves the deep integration of Sony's high-end technology, brand assets, and its own vertical supply chain. On the other hand, it leverages Sony's influence as a global high-end brand, not only in the Japanese market but also in the penetration rate of mid-to-high-end channels in mature markets such as North America and Europe, echoing the expansion needs of its own high-end product lines such as Mini LED TVs.
According to TCL Electronics' performance in the first three quarters of 2025, TCL TV's international market shipments increased by 7.9% year-on-year. The international market shipment growth rate of TCL Mini LED TVs reached an even higher 235.4% year-on-year. Moreover, the European and North American markets performed outstandingly. In the European market, TCL brand TV shipments in the first three quarters of 2025 increased by 20.0% year-on-year. In the North American market, TCL has gradually increased the proportion of shipments in mid-to-high-end channels, with the average selling price of TVs increasing by over 15.0% year-on-year. Furthermore, from January to August 2025, TCL TV's retail volume market share in the United States remained firmly in the top two.
After the joint venture, TCL can leverage Sony's brand effect in the high-end market to form a market combination of "TCL for mid-range volume and Sony for high-end premium," further expanding its globalization strategy.
▋ AskTech Research Summary
In the current TV market, the market share of Chinese brands continues to rise, especially in new display technologies. According to the estimation in the "2025 Mini LED Consumer and Automotive Application Research White Paper" by AskTech, Chinese brands are developing rapidly, and Samsung's Mini LED backlight TV shipments are gradually being surpassed by Chinese brands TCL and Hisense. Currently, the top two brands in Mini LED backlight TV shipments are TCL and Hisense, forming the first tier. Coupled with Xiaomi and Skyworth, the combined market share of Mini LED backlight TV shipments from these four domestic brands is approximately 77%.
Global TV Brand Mini LED TV Shipment Status in 2025
At the same time, the innovative strength of Chinese brands has been fully demonstrated. Companies such as Hisense and TCL took the lead in launching RGB Mini LED TVs, further exploring new technological routes in the high-end TV market. They are also gradually breaking through the "technology first" moat of Japanese enterprises, combining technological innovation with market acceptance, and continuously increasing their product market share. This joint venture between TCL and Sony will not only further broaden TCL's globalization strategy but also further expand the global influence of Chinese TV brands.