TCL-Sony deal marks China’s rise to prominence in TV market
Chinese brands see their share of global television shipments increase to 43% in Q4 of 2025
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[TOKYO] TCL Electronics Holdings’ investment in Sony Group’s global home entertainment business sets the stage for the Chinese manufacturer to become the world’s leading television brand, surpassing South Korean rivals and bookmarking decades of Japanese consumer electronics dominance.
TCL agreed to pay 75.4 billion yen (S$607.8 million) for a 51 per cent stake in a new joint venture that will absorb Sony’s home entertainment unit, including Bravia televisions. Set to launch in April 2027, the venture will make TVs under the Sony and Bravia names while using TCL Electronics’ display technology.
“A window is opening for Chinese brands to claim the top spot in the global television market,” Chinese brokerage Orient Securities said in a March research note. It cited the systemic retreat of Japanese TV brands and their pursuit of partnership with Chinese producers, as well as the pricing pressure faced in some channels by South Korean competitor Samsung Electronics
TCL and Sony’s combined market share could total about 16.7 per cent, which would surpass Samsung’s 16.2 per cent to claim the top position globally, according to industry research company Sigmaintell Consulting. The Chinese firm shipped 30.7 million televisions in 2025, representing an industry-leading growth rate of 6.4 per cent, Sigmaintell said.
By investing in Sony, TCL will gain additional leverage to strengthen its competitiveness in Europe and the US, where the Bravia brand has long been positioned at the high end of the market.
TCL, one of China’s oldest and largest electronics conglomerates, has pushed steadily into overseas markets in recent years and become a major budget television name in the US.
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TCL’s Hong Kong-listed shares have risen about 27 per cent since it announced the Sony partnership in January.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Chinese television makers such as TCL and Hisense Visual Technology have spent years on research and investment of new display technologies like the Mini LED, which is taking an increasingly large share of the profitable super-premium market. That advanced display uses thousands of tiny LEDs for backlighting, enabling much finer control of brightness and contrast than traditional LED television displays, and making it particularly well suited for larger screens.
Still, the TV industry remains a low-margin business defined by intense price competition, and TCL faces an uphill battle to build brand recognition and pricing power in premium overseas markets. Its track record abroad is mixed: a mid-2000s acquisition of French electronics company Thomson’s TV unit led to losses amid rapid technology shifts and weak integration.
The joint venture with Sony also comes as Japan’s once-leading television industry continues to lose ground to other Asian rivals and divest from a business plagued by thin margins.
Hisense acquired Toshiba’s television business in 2017. Foxconn Technology Group now owns Sharp, and fellow Taiwanese company Innolux took control of Pioneer in December. Panasonic Holdings plans to transfer its North American and European television sales operations to Chinese appliance maker Skyworth Group in April, Japan’s Nikkei reported in February.
Chinese brands saw their share of global television shipments increase to 43 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025, while the cumulative share of Samsung, LG Electronics, and Sony fell to 48 per cent, local media reported, citing an Omdia report. BLOOMBERG
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