Sony and TCL have announced plans for a new “joint venture” company to operate Sony’s “TV and home audio business” in the future. The new venture will handle “product development and design for manufacturing, sales, logistics and customer service,” according to a report via Morningstar.
It appears that this new company will take over the entire television business from Sony Electronics. The release says it will be 51% owned by TCL and 49% by Sony, suggesting that TCL will be the dominant player in how it operates.
It’s not clear exactly what “home audio” entails here – I’d assume soundbars such as and Bravia Theater Quad are included, but the Sony CS separate speakers might be in more of a gray area. I wouldn’t expect Sony headphones and Bluetooth speakers to be included.
“The new company plans to advance its business by leveraging Sony’s high-quality picture and sound technology cultivated over the years, brand value and operational expertise, including supply chain management, while leveraging TCL’s advanced display technology, global scale strength, industrial footprint, end-to-end cost efficiency and vertical supply chain advantages.
I’ve also reached out to TCL for comment, though I’m not expecting many concrete details from that side either – the report says final deals are meant to be made by the end of March.
TCL TV with Sony badges?
We’re only three weeks into January, and my TV prediction bingo card has already changed: I wasn’t expecting seismic news like this, especially when Sony has yet to announce its 2026 TV lineup (which we know is coming because it’s been promising us its RGB TV technology is coming this year for…well, about a year).
This is an interesting approach for the future. I suspect that TCL’s larger share of the business meant that it is likely to dominate the production of Sony-branded TVs in the future – but Sony will still retain a huge share of the business.
So it doesn’t look like this will just be a case of a venerable old brand getting its technology made by a completely unrelated company, such as with Toshiba’s TVs. (Although this can have some impressive results – Philips’ European OLED TVs are made by a different company and are excellent.)
My hope is that Sony’s development teams will be involved in the new company and that the joint venture will still use OLED panels when it wants to, even if TCL avoids OLED altogether for its own TVs. Perhaps we’ll still have Sony Bravia XR treatment and a picture profile designed to match Sony’s professional displays, the way its TVs are designed now.
It may be that TCL mainly transforms Sony’s mid-range and budget options with the help of its impressive cost-effective manufacturing. Sony’s high-end TVs are legendary, but while their more affordable options look very nice, they’re basically always lagging behind the competition on value – and that’s been doubly so over the past year, with TCL, Hisense, Amazon and Roku increasingly dominating the mid-range TV world.
But it’s possible that the changes will be more fundamental, and that Sony’s contribution is much lighter – and that we’ll really see TCL TVs with Sony badges and a few unique features to make them stand out (like the Perfect for PlayStation features).
One thing to note here is that TCL is already the manufacturer of the panels used by one lot of TV makers through its display manufacturing arm, TCL CSOT – so it may not be involved in Sony’s manufacturing to different than now depending on where Sony gets its panels.
Or it could mean much more dramatic changes in the future. I’m guessing that if the new joint venture isn’t confirmed until March, the absolute earliest we can expect to see anything from it will be CES 2027.
In any case, Sony fans are among the most enthusiastic and loyal in the TV world, so it’s going to be an interesting year for them no matter what.
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