EXCLUSIVE: Email Claims Sony Set To Quit TV Market Because Of “Demands Of Mass Retailers”
New speculation has emerged that Sony is set to quit the consumer TV market, with an email indicating that Sony management are not happy with the terms and demands of mass retailers who currently sell their product.
Recently we revealed that Sony had given Office works access to three small Sony TV’s spanning 43″ 32” and 50-inch TVs in an effort to take share away from JB Hi Fi and Harvey Norman.
Shortly after we broke this story, we got an email from a Sony internal source claiming that Sony is set to pull out of TVs in Australia, and that the move to supplying Officeworks was because Sony management were not happy with the terms that the likes of Harvey Norman and JB Hi Fi offered them.
Referring to Sony they wrote “They have had an absolute gut full of dealing with the management of Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi and feel that this is a monopoly that isn’t worth working against”.
“Both retailers (and others) are happy to use big brand names like Sony to advance their own business interests (“look, we even discount the big names!”) but it has nothing to do with what Sony sees as the real business. Worse, they cherry pick from the large range of options which Sony offers then they get angry at Sony for wanting to sell them direct”.
The Sony executive who sent the email claims that all Sony wanted was “A fair run but they aren’t getting it”.
“The move to Officeworks is simply about stop moving and sticking the middle finger up to people that Sony is basically sick of. I wonder if those dealers will take one step back and wonder if they could have managed their relationship better?”.During the past 12 months there have been major rumblings that Sony is struggling in the consumer TV market with insiders telling ChannelNews that in December 2023 their sales were down over 20%.
At the same time their Pro Sony TV panels sold via Audio Active into the specialist channel have been in big demand along with Sony Projectors, which sell between $12,000 and $100,000.
One issue for retailers is that Sony is well known for selling direct, while also offering online incentives that are not given to mass retailers selling the same product.
ChannelNews has been unable to confirm from senior Sony management the accuracy of the claims.