Sony selling TV business to TCL
Discussion
This news is quite surprising to me but is a sign of the dwindling margins and reducing value in perceived quality.
Sony have had a reputation of building quality TVs for longer than I have been alive. My Grandfather started selling Sony TVs close enough to the Second World War that his shops got vandalized and he was branded a traitor.
Back when I started working in the family TV business we would make 25% profit on sales. A TV in the 90's could cost £1k. TCL TVs cost considerably less than that. Within a short time frame in the 90's that reduced so much that we could buy TVs at the big retailers, off the shelf, cheaper than the manufacturers would sell to us. My dad founded a buyers group that allowed them to negotiate with the same purchasing power.
Sony have had a reputation of building quality TVs for longer than I have been alive. My Grandfather started selling Sony TVs close enough to the Second World War that his shops got vandalized and he was branded a traitor.
Back when I started working in the family TV business we would make 25% profit on sales. A TV in the 90's could cost £1k. TCL TVs cost considerably less than that. Within a short time frame in the 90's that reduced so much that we could buy TVs at the big retailers, off the shelf, cheaper than the manufacturers would sell to us. My dad founded a buyers group that allowed them to negotiate with the same purchasing power.
Sony have been using LG, Samsung and TCL parts for ages. They're not exactly a primary manufacturer like others are any more, more a matter of applying their own special sauce onto others product.
A modern TV is basically a panel, a PSU and a processor/interface board, the PSU is usually outsourced to whoever hits the price target so if your only in-house differentiator is the processing you have limited scope to move.
A modern TV is basically a panel, a PSU and a processor/interface board, the PSU is usually outsourced to whoever hits the price target so if your only in-house differentiator is the processing you have limited scope to move.
Manufacturers have sourced parts from other companies from the beginning. Bang and Olufsen had a reputation for being over priced Philips for decades. But, clearly they are at different price points with different other component parts.
Most manufactures have been sourcing their panels since the days of Plasma when it was Philips and Panasonic who built the screens. In the early days we had 50% failure rate on Philips screens. That was built into the price meaning you were effectively buying two and getting one TV.
For OLED, Sony has been adding a processing layer to the panels sourced from LG.
This is different. This is TCL building TVs not Sony.
Most manufactures have been sourcing their panels since the days of Plasma when it was Philips and Panasonic who built the screens. In the early days we had 50% failure rate on Philips screens. That was built into the price meaning you were effectively buying two and getting one TV.
For OLED, Sony has been adding a processing layer to the panels sourced from LG.
This is different. This is TCL building TVs not Sony.
JoshSm said:
Sony have been using LG, Samsung and TCL parts for ages. They're not exactly a primary manufacturer like others are any more, more a matter of applying their own special sauce onto others product.
Having just been in a TV showroom and bought a TV, they all seemed 'much of a muchness'....apart from one huge and latest and greatest Sony which stood out on image quality.The other ones that stood out were Samsung - some of the images were really poor, and salesperson was suggesting sound on Samsung can be very hit and miss...I was directed to TCL and Hisense..
h0b0 said:
This is different. This is TCL building TVs not Sony.
If TCL build to the same level as Hisence they will be better TVs than Sony makehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmnfwabz0bA
Dave Hedgehog said:
h0b0 said:
This is different. This is TCL building TVs not Sony.
If TCL build to the same level as Hisence they will be better TVs than Sony makehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmnfwabz0bA
Edited by ChocolateFrog on Sunday 25th January 18:40
Bit of a shame considering Sony's history in the industry, however it's not unlike them to sell off hardware divisons that aren't as profitable as they'd like - I'm still a bit gutted they sold off Vaio before I had a chance to pick one up (read afford one of the proper ones).
We've got 4 of their sets in the house - and I know they all used other people's panels - but they've all been quality bits of kit. The oldest one is from 2014 and still going strong, even if most of the apps have stopped working. Our 65 incher downstairs did stop working at one point with a known fault in the power supply when it was out of warranty. To be fair to them they extended the warranty for that fault specifically and fixed it FOC, so can't complain.
If they can keep up the quality and image processing they are famous for I may get another in future - will wait and see though.
We've got 4 of their sets in the house - and I know they all used other people's panels - but they've all been quality bits of kit. The oldest one is from 2014 and still going strong, even if most of the apps have stopped working. Our 65 incher downstairs did stop working at one point with a known fault in the power supply when it was out of warranty. To be fair to them they extended the warranty for that fault specifically and fixed it FOC, so can't complain.
If they can keep up the quality and image processing they are famous for I may get another in future - will wait and see though.
bodhi said:
Our 65 incher downstairs did stop working at one point with a known fault in the power supply when it was out of warranty.
Though that is a weak point for lots of the brands, the PSUs are all subbed out and cost engineered. I've just had to sort a Samsung and an LG for generic PSU failures - luckily both easy to diagnose & fix as they'd have been awkward to match with current models.Biggest issue I have with current brands - beyond the ever shrinking amount of I/O options - is how noddy the specs are on so many. It's all about the panel, and mostly about the size. If you aren't buying the biggest one then a lot of other specs are compromised too and apparently no-one really wants anything smaller that 50-ish inches given the feeble offers below that.
At least Sony did have plenty of inputs, not so common now for some reason.
So now you can buy big screens for cheap but you're a bit f
ked if you want a little more than that. Especially if you'd rather just have a screen and not lots of pointless 'smart' stuff. JoshSm said:
So now you can buy big screens for cheap but you're a bit fked if you want a little more than that. Especially if you'd rather just have a screen and not lots of pointless 'smart' stuff.
Of those 4 TVs I can't remember the last time we used any of the "smart" stuff, 3 of them have Sky Q boxes attached and the old one has a PS4 which handles all that stuff. Thankfully the smart stuff on the Google TV versions doesn#t really get in the way other than demanding an update every so often. The Android TV one can be a pain, needing a full reboot every so often as it wither won't switch on or has a worrying looking red light at the bottom (and still won't switch on). ked if you want a little more than that. Especially if you'd rather just have a screen and not lots of pointless 'smart' stuff. I'd love just a quality screen, decent motion processing and good sound, even lots of inputs aren't that necessary as we use the soundbar for that.
Guess we're in the minority judging by what the manufacturers are churning out.
Never heard of TCL but this is sad news because of Sony's long history.
Not really surprising though because other than PlayStation, what else is Sony recognised for these days? Not a lot I can think of. Headphones perhaps, but that is also a cutthroat over saturated market.
It was the same with Pioneer plasmas, Philips selling their retail electronics arm, et al.
Discerning folk didn't used to mind paying extra for quality.....back in the day of receivers / integrated amplifiers with thick aluminium front panels and knobs, Trinitron, Philips Pixel Plus, Pioneer Kuro etc.
I think those people are dwindling now because everything is plastic and subscription based, so the perceived quality/value isn't there anymore.
Not really surprising though because other than PlayStation, what else is Sony recognised for these days? Not a lot I can think of. Headphones perhaps, but that is also a cutthroat over saturated market.
It was the same with Pioneer plasmas, Philips selling their retail electronics arm, et al.
Discerning folk didn't used to mind paying extra for quality.....back in the day of receivers / integrated amplifiers with thick aluminium front panels and knobs, Trinitron, Philips Pixel Plus, Pioneer Kuro etc.
I think those people are dwindling now because everything is plastic and subscription based, so the perceived quality/value isn't there anymore.
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