Sony TV sales rise in Q1 due to sporting events

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Sony TV sales rise in Q1 due to sporting events

Sony Corp.’s television sales revenue jumped the most in the first quarter since 2012 as global demand increased during the Winter Olympics and ahead of the World Cup football tournament in Brazil.

Sony sales rose 30 percent to $2.15 billion, compared with $1.65 billion a year earlier. Samsung Electronics generated the most sales in the quarter with about $9 billion, a 1 percent increase, and LG Electronics, TCL Corp., Sony and Skyworth Digital Holdings Ltd. made up the rest of the top five.

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai said last month the company’s struggling TV unit could make its first profit in more than a decade even if it misses sales forecasts by as much as 16 percent. Japan’s No. 1 TV maker unexpectedly forecast a 50 billion-yen ($490 million) net loss this year as slumping demand for its sets and video cameras was compounded by the costs of restructuring and exiting the PC business.

“Globally, Sony has been successful in focusing on high-end TV models,” Junya Ayada, a Tokyo-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Group, said. “Sales in Europe have increased in the three months ending in March due to improvements in operations.”

Global TV shipments in the first quarter rose less than 1 percent to 50.8 million units. Samsung shipped about 12.2 million sets, LG 8.3 million and TCL 3.7 million.

Sony, which shipped 3.1 million units, has forecast sales of 16 million LCD sets this fiscal year, though Hirai said the business can still make money if it sells only 13.5 million units, the same number as last year. Hirai has trimmed the TV product lineup to focus on ultra high definition sets.

Bloomberg




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