I did not see this one coming. Sony is apparently selling a majority stake of their home entertainment business (including Bravia TVs) to TCL.
This makes me sad. It seems a few very large companies will own everything.
Japanese manufacturers like Sony, Hitachi, JVC and Toshiba used to rule the TV market. Then along came Korean manufacturers like Samsung and LG who displaced them and took a king’s share of the market.
It seems Chinese manufacturers like TCL and Hisense will now displace LG and Samsung.
Most high end Sony Oled’s use LG screens anyway, and have done for some time. I can see Samsung going down the same path as Sony, but not LG. LG are very very protective and very proactive at keeping their IPR to themselves, that’s why they are so good. The Chinese will find LG a very very hard nut to crack.
It’s a controlling stake of 51% not a leaving of the market. Bravias will still be made with a Sony badge but in 2027 they will move to TCL’s plants and use TCL panels.
Not a terrible thing. The current panels they use are sub par and noticeably have dark clouding in the edges compared to all other makers, though the LGs seem to suffer a similar issue. Sony were once king of the CRT but have been constantly behind the quality curve for decades since the move to flat screens.
I’m still using an aging Loewe Bild 5.48 TV which, whilst creaking at the seams, is proving very difficult to replace mainly due to having a built in & very good centre channel, but I reckon that the quality of the screen is now almost second in line to the quality of the UX.
LG & Samsung’s so-called “smart“ TVs, remotes & GUIs are a nightmare & are something that I will go to great lengths to avoid.
I use a Roku streaming stick for smart TV functionality.
20 or 30 streaming apps available, never fails to work and the voice activated mobile phone app is top notch.
£40 for 4K stick is an absolute bargain.
We still use a few Sony TVs - a KDL-42W705B and a pair of KDL-32WD756s. Their picture quality is still excellent with none of the back-light issues that can be a problem with so many sets. Only real gripe is the time it takes to power up and take control, and the sound, which can be a bit weedy, but then that seems to be par for the course with so many modern flat screens.
I did have a KDL-50W829B for a while for blu-ray film watching, but that had a nasty sort of clouding effect when the screen would show black or a dark scene, like the backlight was bleeding through in places. I couldn’t live with it in the end and replaced it with a secondhand Pioneer Kuro 9th Gen plasma, which had much better blacks and overall a far more film-like image.
I bought a Sony Bravia 8 mk2 last summer after originally buying an LG G5 which had a screen reflection issue. The Sony is my 2nd OLED and to the best of my knowledge it uses a quantum dot OLED panel from Samsung. It’s a really stunning TV with a premium feel, I hope that whatever happens with TCL that this quality and refinement continues.
I wonder what sales of TV’s looks like these days. Younger people seem happy to watch everything on phones/tablets/laptops. Other than gaming, is this a trend away from big TV’s for the younger generation?