Yesterday, Sony announced that it plans to enter a joint venture with Chinese TV manufacturer TCL, in which ownership of its TV business will be split almost in half.
I say almost, as TCL will technically become the majority stakeholder by owning 51 per cent of the business, whereas Sony will hold onto 49 per cent.
Frankly speaking, this announcement sent waves across the What Hi-Fi? team. There hasn't been much evidence leading up to this that Sony was looking to spin its TV business off in this direction, and there was certainly no indication that it was striking up a relationship with TCL.
The statement shared by Sony was brief, but it got the message across. The thought process here is that Sony will continue to implement its proprietary picture and audio tech, presumably including its legendary picture processing systems.
In contrast, TCL will handle the development of advanced display technology and leverage its existing cost-effective manufacturing infrastructure.
Sony TVs will continue to exist under the Sony and Bravia names, but the products themselves may look different in the future.
With a surprise announcement and very few details to go off, our team of home cinema aficionados have a range of questions, concerns and theories as to what this deal could entail.
I've assembled our TV and AV Editor (Tom Parsons), Editor in Chief (Alastair Stevenson), and Deputy Editor (Andy Madden) to share thoughts on Sony and TCL's new joint venture.
We have a range of opinions and questions, some more optimistic than others. We wonder if Sony can adapt to TCL's mammoth manufacturing operations, and what about the projectors? Unfortunately, we don't have the answers right now, but you can find our musings below...
What does the future hold for Sony's home cinema products?
A confession: I didn’t see this coming, and I’m not sure how I feel about it
Scale is great, but Sony's strength has always been its attention to detail
As the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em…
MORE:
Check out our full story covering the Sony/TCL partnership announcement
Read our full TCL C8K review
As well as our Sony Bravia 8 II review
