The four giants of Japanese TV are all

Yesterday, Panasonic Holdings officially announced that starting from April 1, 2026, it will fully transfer the entire chain of TV sales, marketing, and logistics operations in the two core markets of North America and Europe to China Skyworth Group.

At the same time, Panasonic will shrink its front line and focus on Japan's local market operations and high-end OLED image quality technology, product standards, and quality control. The two parties will simultaneously conduct joint research and development in the fields of high-end OLED, Mini LED, and image quality algorithms.

This is the second landmark incident in just one month in which a Japanese consumer electronics giant has handed over its mainstream regional TV business to a Chinese company after TCL and Sony reached a joint venture in the TV business.

Behind the cooperation incident

This cooperation between Panasonic and Skyworth is not a simple channel agency, but an in-depth strategic reorganization. According to the comprehensive cooperation agreement signed by the two parties, Skyworth will take over Panasonic's sales, marketing, logistics and after-sales service systems in the North American and European markets, while Panasonic will retain the rights to product research and development, quality standard control and audio-visual technology standards, and focus on the Japanese local market and the production of high-end OLED flagship models. Let’s look at the strategies of the two companies:

1. Panasonic’s strategic contraction

Panasonic’s decision is the inevitable result of long-term pressure on its TV business.

According to public data, Panasonic's global TV shipments have dropped sharply from 6.31 million units in 2016 to 2.02 million units in 2024, with a global market share of less than 1%. The European and American markets have been experiencing long-term losses and shrinking scale, and global shipments and share have continued to decline, making it difficult to compete with the cost and channel advantages of Korean and Chinese brands.

At the same time, Panasonic Group's strategy has shifted to B2B, new energy, automotive and high-end components, and consumer TV is no longer the core growth pole.

Today, Panasonic retains its brand, technical standards and quality control, maintaining its global influence with an asset-light, technology output model and avoiding a complete exit from the TV industry.

2. Skyworth’s “borrowing a boat to go to sea”

For Skyworth, taking over Panasonic’s European and American business is a key step in its globalization.

Looking back on Skyworth's overseas path, Skyworth successfully entered the German high-end market by acquiring the German high-end TV brand Metz; it also annexed the European set-top box giant Strong, solidifying the hardware foundation for the home entertainment entrance; it acquired the well-known South African brand Sinotec and quickly occupied the African market share; it also took over Toshiba's Indonesian factory and initially digested the Japanese lean manufacturing management system.

In addition, Skyworth's acquisition of Japan's Funai Electric's North American business in July 2025 gave it the right to operate the Philips brand in North America.

Despite having the above assets, Skyworth's globalization still faces structural shortcomings. Metz is limited to the German-speaking region, Sinotec is limited to developing markets, and Philips' operations in North America are still in the running-in period, and the brand potential has not been fully released. This has resulted in Skyworth’s lack of a “super anchor” with a profound historical heritage that can directly compete with Samsung and LG in the North American mainstream high-end market, which is the most fiercely competitive market, and it is difficult for Skyworth to truly join the first echelon.

Panasonic’s mature channels, brand recognition and after-sales network accumulated over decades of hard work in Europe and the United States will allow Skyworth to directly enter the high-end market without huge investments, further strengthening its influence in the global market.

In addition, the R&D collaboration between the two parties in the fields of high-end OLED and Mini LED is also expected to help Skyworth break through the technological ceiling and benchmark the path of industry giants such as TCL and Sony, Hisense and Toshiba.

Restructuring of the division of labor in the global TV industry

Panasonic handed over its European and American TV sales business to Skyworth, and TCL and Sony previously established a joint venture. These two events marked a profound restructuring of the division of labor in the TV industry to a certain extent.

In the cooperation between TCL and Sony, TCL controls 51% and leads R&D, production, supply chain and sales, while Sony retains the brand, core image quality technology and minority shares; the cooperation between Panasonic and Skyworth allows Skyworth to fully take over the operating rights in Europe and the United States and lead market-oriented operations. Panasonic focuses on technology research and development and quality control and continues to authorize brand use.

Behind these cooperation models are the heavy pressures faced by traditional Japanese companies in the "vertical integration of the entire industry chain" model in the era of globalized supply chains. Chinese companies have achieved ultimate cost control and economies of scale through the global layout of panels, chips and complete machines, while Japanese companies are subject to local manufacturing or high-cost supply chains, and are gradually losing power in price competition.

In fact, Panasonic's handover of its European and American TV business is not an isolated case, but a microcosm of the collective contraction of the TV business by Japanese brands: Toshiba's TV business belongs to Hisense, Sharp is included in the Hon Hai system, Mitsubishi Electric withdrew from the consumer TV market in 2018, and Funai Electric went bankrupt and liquidated and stopped operating core home appliances. The trend of Japanese brands withdrawing from large-scale terminal competition has become increasingly clear.

Against this background, Japanese brands are gradually turning to an asset-light strategy, focusing on technology licensing, standard output and high-end IP holdings, and actively divesting asset-heavy links such as large-scale manufacturing and regional marketing. In contrast, China's leading home appliance companies rely on their full industry chain integration capabilities, cost control advantages and mature global operating experience to gradually assume the leading role in the global TV industry and become the core force driving the development of the industry.

Experts say Research summary

The global television industry is undergoing structural restructuring, and the increase in the share of Chinese brands is in sharp contrast with the strategic contraction of Japanese companies.

According to experts, the "2025 Mini LED Consumer and Automotive Application Research White Paper" shows that among the top ten global TV shipments in the first three quarters of 2025, Chinese brands have occupied six seats, with Korean Samsung and LG maintaining their top positions, while only Sony from Japan was shortlisted and ranked low.

Source: "2025 Mini LED Consumer and Automotive Application Research White Paper"

This pattern is expected to further evolve in 2026. As Panasonic transfers its European and American TV sales business to Skyworth, and TCL previously took over Sony's TV business, the presence of Japanese brands in the mainstream consumer market continues to weaken, and its business focus gradually shrinks to the ultra-high-end market segment and Japan.

From Toshiba and Hisense, Sharp and Hon Hai, Sony and TCL to Panasonic and Skyworth, Japanese TV companies have gradually completed their transition from overall dominance in the global market to a value focus with technology licensing and high-end brand operations as the core.

At the same time, Chinese display companies have surpassed the stage of "going global production capacity" and gradually realized the global integration of brands, supply chains and technical standards. Driven by new display technologies such as Mini LED, Chinese companies have formed significant advantages in global channel layout, industrial chain coordination and large-scale cost control, driving the TV industry to evolve towards a more efficient division of labor system.

This round of industrial transfer is not only a redistribution of market shares, but also a structural shift that shows the dominance of technological competition and the right to speak in the industrial chain. In the future, competition in the global TV market may focus more on display technology iteration, ecological integration and user experience innovation. The cooperation and competition model between Chinese and Japanese companies will also continue to affect the pattern of the global display industry.