Sony Is Selling Premium. Why Samsung & LG Are Selling More

A 55-inch television can make a living room look smaller. It can also make a famous brand name look less imposing.

Put enough large screens beside one another, each promising cinematic colour, clever processing and a small alphabet of display technologies, and prestige acquires a practical problem. It has to explain the price card.

Sony’s latest India numbers give that problem a business peg. Its consumer audio and visual division, which includes televisions, home theatre systems and personal audio, reportedly generated ₹6,529 crore in FY26, unchanged from the previous year. Overall revenue rose just 0.9% to ₹7,918 crore.

The comparison with its Korean competitors is uncomfortable. Samsung India’s audio-visual business, comprising televisions and soundbars, grew 8.5% to ₹8,056 crore in the same financial year. LG Electronics India’s Home Entertainment division grew approximately 5.7% to ₹6,444 crore.

These businesses contain different products. Their revenue cannot be converted into a neat television market-share league table. Nevertheless, the direction is revealing: two major rivals expanded relevant businesses while Sony’s remained stationary.

Premiumisation, that dependable corporate incantation, appears to have developed selective hearing.

BIGGER DOES NOT MEAN BUSIER

India’s television market is offering manufacturers two experiences at once. Selling more sets has become difficult. Selling larger, better-equipped sets remains an opportunity.

Smart-TV shipments fell 3% year-on-year in January–March 2026. Yet televisions measuring 55 inches and above were the fastest-growing screen-size group and accounted for nearly one-third of shipments. QLED represented around 30% of the market, with strong growth in the ₹20,000–₹30,000 bracket. MiniLED shipments increased more than thirteenfold, albeit from a small base.

The distinction matters. Better display technology is spreading across price bands, giving shoppers more ways to upgrade.

Pressure intensified in April–June. Counterpoint’s public smart-TV brief records an 8.2% shipment decline, linking it to memory-price inflation, higher prices and consumers postponing purchases in anticipation of festive offers. Premium products nevertheless continued performing well.

This is a difficult market, but difficulty is distributed unevenly.

LG’s Home Entertainment revenue grew 22.3% to ₹1,657 crore in April–June 2026. Management reportedly said its 55-inch-and-above business grew roughly 53%, contributing around half its TV business. Those are company disclosures for a later quarter than the annual Sony comparison; they underline the opportunity in larger formats rather than establish a direct quarterly victory over Sony.

The uncomfortable question for Sony is, therefore, more specific than whether Indians are buying televisions. It is how effectively Sony is participating in the upgrades that are happening.

A premium brand has to make its difference legible at the moment of comparison. Familiarity can bring the customer to the shelf, but the product, demonstration and service proposition have to justify the extra money.

THE PREMIUM IS GETTING CROWDED

For an established brand, the trickiest competitor can be the one that changes what the customer expects at a particular price.

Hisense’s India CEO recently said in an interview that the company was offering a 55-inch MiniLED television around ₹50,000 during the festive season, subject to discounts. He estimated its Indian TV share at 3–4% and outlined an ambition to reach 10% within two to three years.

The offer still illustrates the competitive proposition: more screen, more display technology and a price intended to invite comparison.

This does not establish that a cheaper television delivers an identical viewing experience. Screen size and a technology label cannot settle questions about processing, motion, sound, build quality or service. It does mean a familiar badge faces a longer conversation.

Consumers may be moving towards premium features without moving towards the most expensive brand. When several companies offer visible improvements, the established brand has to explain which benefits are distinctive and why they matter in everyday use. That is where the marketing story sits. Premiumisation describes a shift in what consumers buy. It does not guarantee which company gets their money.

Samsung and LG’s growth also complicates an easy story about Chinese challengers overwhelming every legacy name. Established competitors are finding growth too. Sony faces rivals with different propositions, rather than one uniform assault from the bargain shelf.

THE RIVAL IN THE NEXT ROOM

Globally, this competition is changing the structure of the television business.

Counterpoint recorded 22% growth in TCL’s worldwide TV shipments in January–March 2026, against Samsung’s 8%. Those are global shipment figures, not evidence of TCL taking share from Sony in India. They demonstrate the scale behind one of the industry’s most consequential partnerships.

Under definitive agreements signed by Sony and TCL, a new venture would take over Sony’s home-entertainment business, with TCL holding 51% and Sony 49%. Its products are expected to carry the Sony and BRAVIA names. Operations are expected to begin in April 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions. The planned venture covers development, manufacturing, sales, logistics and customer service across televisions, displays and home audio.

This is a substantial reorganisation of the business behind the badge.

There is an irony here worth lingering over. Sony’s proposed route to a more competitive future includes the scale of a company whose own televisions compete for the same customers.

It is also a sensible industrial argument. Sony’s brand and product capabilities can be combined with TCL’s manufacturing and supply-chain strengths. The partnership could improve the proposition rather than dilute it. Its outcome remains to be demonstrated. The consumer will judge the experience delivered under the name. A partnership can strengthen a premium brand if it improves the product and value proposition. The risk comes when the ownership story becomes clearer than the consumer benefit.

THE PICTURE IS NOT ALL GLOOM

Sony’s net profit in India rose 19% to ₹187 crore in FY26. Flat revenue has not prevented higher earnings. The company also said it maintained its premium-segment share. That is a company claim, but one that deserves to sit alongside the flat revenue.

That should restrain any obituary for the brand. Nor do the available figures prove that Sony lost television market share: its disclosed division includes audio, LG’s includes commercial displays and monitors, and the companies have different product mixes.

The story is about a growth gap and the competitive questions it raises. Establishing its precise causes would require more comparable evidence on television-only revenue, units, prices, distribution and category shares.

What the existing evidence does establish is that the market offers more than one route to growth. LG is finding demand for larger formats. Samsung’s television and soundbar business expanded over the same financial year in which Sony’s relevant division stood still. Challengers are making sophisticated display propositions more accessible.

Sony, therefore, has a difference to articulate, not merely a reputation to announce.

The TCL venture makes that challenge unusually interesting. If it proceeds as planned, a customer will still be able to choose the Sony name over TCL on the shop floor. Behind that choice, TCL will hold the majority stake in the business working to make the Sony proposition competitive.

The names on the neighbouring screens may remain rivals. The business behind them will have become partners.