TCL is growing wildly in TVs while Samsung falls. The surprise that no one saw coming is about to happen

The global television market fell 1% year-on-year in November 2025, but behind that decline is the sign of a change in hierarchy: Samsung continues to be the leader with a 17% share, but TCL has boosted its sales by 20% compared to the previous year and is already close to first place. What seemed impossible two years ago (a Chinese brand that used to be seen as ‘cheap’ taking the throne from Samsung) is now a very real possibility. The data comes out of latest monthly report sales report published by the market analysis firm Counterpoint Research. The figures. Samsung has gone from 18% to 17% market share in one year, with a 3% decline in units sold. TCL, on the other hand, has climbed from 13% to 16% and continues to rise. Hisense, the third manufacturer, has fallen 13%, dragged down by the collapse of the Chinese market (-24%), where it is stronger than in the West. LG has grown by 7% and stands at 9%, while Walmart has strongly entered the top 5 after completing the purchase of Vizio in December 2024. Between the lines. TCL’s rise is neither coincidental nor ephemeral. The company has stopped being seen as a manufacturer of cheap TVs to position itself in premium technologies such as MiniLEDwhich sells at more competitive prices than Samsung. That combo has been lethal in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where demand for quality is growing but price remains decisive. And there is another key factor: TCL hardly depends on the Chinese market, which is in free fall. Hisense has collapsed due to its exposure to its country of origin (it accumulates almost a third of its sales there), but TCL has diversified its sales and is now reaping those fruits. The master stroke. TCL just signed a historic agreement with Sony to manufacture its televisions under a joint venture in which the Chinese will control 51% and the Japanese 49%. It is a move that changes everything: TCL gains instant credibility in the premium sector by associating with a brand synonymous with image quality, and also manages to penetrate Japan, a protectionist market where Chinese brands have a very difficult time. For Sony it is a way to survive in an increasingly competitive market where it does not manufacture its own panels and its premium prices leave it out of the game. For TCL it is the definitive boost: it stops being the cheap-Chinese manufacturer and starts managing one of the most respected brands in the sector. The joint venture will start in 2027, so the immediate effects will be less than anecdotal. But in the medium term, history may change. Yes, but. Samsung is not going to let itself be dethroned without going down into the mud. Although its share has fallen, it still has great financial muscle, a global distribution network full of alliances forged after many years of relationships with distributors, and an advantage in premium segments such as OLED and QD-OLED. Besides, Walmart’s acquisition of Vizio It marks the entry of a third major contender in North America that could make life difficult for both Samsung and TCL. What is clear is that 2026 will be the definitive year: TCL, Hisense and Xiaomi are going to continue putting pressure on MiniLED and medium-large screens, just where demand grows the most. And if Samsung does not react as it should, the surprise It may be a matter of quarters. He 2026 World Cup can alter all forecasts. It is one of the great incentives for millions of homes to renew their TVs, and whoever best positions themselves in price and technology will win the jackpot. And now what. The battle to lead TV sales is no longer just a technological issue, it is also a question of pricing strategy and geographical expansion. TCL has shown that it can grow with a lot of commercial aggressiveness without giving up the best technologies. Samsung is going to have to decide whether to lower its prices or take refuge in the most premium segment. The third option (staying still) does not seem viable for anyone’s sake. In Xataka | I also plugged the HDMI cables into the first port I found: I was wasting half my TV Featured image | TCL

TCL will make Sony’s next TVs in a deal to confront a common enemy: Samsung and LG

If you have felt an earthquake and you don’t know where it is coming from, the easiest thing is for it to come from Japan. Specifically, from the headquarters of a Sony that has been associated with excellence in image quality for decades and that ends of ceding control of its Bravia brand to the Chinese company TCL. Since the time of Trinitron technology (so currently sought after to play on retro consoles) until Wega and the current Bravia, the Japanese giant had earned a deserved space in the premium range. They did not manufacture their panels (they bought them from Samsung and LG), but they did fine-tune them to offer very purist cinematic experiences. On the other side of the pond, in China, TCL has grown in recent years until it became one of the largest panel manufacturing companies. Now, China and Japan are joining their paths thanks to a joint venture that will take advantage of “the high-quality audio and image technology that Sony has cultivated over the years.” And the accounts are favorable for TCL: while the Chinese will control 51% of the joint-venture, the Japanese will keep 49%. It makes… quite a bit of sense. Movement that sounds more like a win-win than a retreat Although Sony televisions have extremely high-quality panels and modes that are very suitable for both movies and, above all, for video games in conjunction with a PlayStation 5the market has become increasingly complicated. Sony’s brand value and its name make its televisions more expensive than those of the competition, and that competition (led by Samsung or LG), is tighter than ever thanks to its OLED and QD-OLED technology. TCL is not far behind. After a huge investment in plants within China, the company has specialized in manufacturing Gen 10.5 panels. This implies that they have an enormous production capacity, which in practice translates into an ability like few others to flood the market with large-inch televisions at rock-bottom prices. That’s where this joint venture makes perfect sense. In its statement, Sony has confirmed that the company will operate globally and carry out the entire process: development, design, manufacturing, logistics, sales and customer service for both televisions and home audio equipment. We believe this strategic partnership with Sony represents a unique opportunity to combine the strengths of Sony and TCL – Du Juan, President of TCL Electronics That name of ‘Sony’ and ‘Bravia’ is a perfect opportunity for a TCL that will see how it can operate a brand of international prestige. For its part, Sony gains muscle that it did not have until now thanks to the most powerful companies when it comes to producing large-scale panels. Of course, apart from that 51% over Sony’s 49%, and the possibility of using its name, TCL gains something else: penetration in Japan, a protectionist market that prioritizes Japanese brands, especially against arrivals from China. The Japanese company has commented that it will be at the end of 2026 when the binding agreements between the two will be closed in order to begin operations in April 2027. And although this is an interesting operation as a whole, TCL is the clear winner: it gains premium credibility without having to build it from scratch, while Sony dilutes precisely what made its brand valuable. Images | TCL, Xataka In Xataka | The next big chip crisis is beginning. And this time copper and water are responsible.

TCL has entered the television market by doing what seemed impossible: democratizing the Mini-LED

TCL has become one of the big revelations of 2025 in the television market thanks to its commitment to screens Mini-LED in the mid-range segment. This commitment to bringing high-end technology to the mid-range has caused the Chinese brand’s sales to skyrocket and has made it one of the main rivals to beat for manufacturers such as Samsung or LG, which have seen how his quota was reduced of sales among mid-range televisions. Good proof of this is that our readers have chosen the TCL C6K Premium QD-MiniLED as the best entry and mid-range television in the Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025. What is TCL’s recipe for success? The keys to TCL’s takeoff For years, TCL was seen as a secondary Chinese brand in the smartphone segment. cheap televisions in Spain. However, its real position is far from that perception: it is one of the three largest television manufacturers in the world, only behind Samsung and very close to LG in annual shipment volume. According to Omdia data and Counterpointboth TCL and Hisense have surpassed LG in the number of shipments in key segments such as advanced televisions (Mini-LED, large diagonals and higher ranges). In this segment, TCL already has a 19% global share and its revenue share has increased from 13% in 2024 to 16% in 2025, illustrating its growth in the mid-range television market and the increase in its sales volume. He starting point of TCL expansion we find it in the local Chinese market, encouraged for government subsidieswhich served as a launching platform to finance the expansion of the brand to the rest of the world’s markets. Premium TV (mini-LED) shipping data from 2023-2024 Source: Counterpoint As pointed out the analysis from Omdia, the great turning point for TCL comes when the local Chinese market, until then its main driving force, slows its growth. In 2025, domestic sales fell 12.2% year-on-year, partly due to the end of the incentive and subsidy programs that boosted demand. This slowdown catches TCL with its homework done in the international market, so, with China slowing downTCL has had no choice but to turn to other markets. And that is where its change of scale begins. Europe, North America and Latin America have become its new growth scenario. In a global context where global shipments of televisions fell 0.6% In the third quarter of 2025, TCL managed to grow 2%, and not because of a stroke of luck, but because of a very fine-tuned strategy that mixes price, technology and brand visibility. Year-on-year growth in the different global markets Source: Omdia Spain has become a strategic commercial laboratory for TCL, where it offers a powerful mid-range, marketing highly focused on sports in general and soccer in particular (with sponsorships for the Spanish team) and an aggressive presence in stores. The result is that TCL already competes in practice with brands that traditionally dominated the mid-range offering such as Samsung, LG and Xiaomi. Especially on the annual sales podium in several large format categories with models from 77″ onwards. The secret of TCL’s success The explanation for TCL’s growth in the mid-range television market in Spain does not have a single person responsible, but it has a common thread: TCL understood before anyone else what the European consumer was looking for after the pandemic. One of those keys is offered Mini-LED panels. Until two years ago, Mini-LED was an almost exclusive territory of the high ranges of Samsung, Sony or LG. But TCL (just like Hisense), has taken it to the mid-range. This has been possible because its costs were reduced and it became an affordable option. Suddenly, a television with spectacular brightness, good contrast and more dimming zones than traditional LEDs stopped costing thousands of euros. That has given TCL the ability to build a catalog that no longer only competes on price, but also does it in terms of quality and, most importantly, without the size limitations imposed by OLED technology. TCL is one of the few manufacturers that, for example, has 98 and 115 inch screens and They are leaders in that segment. This variety of diagonals allows it to reach both those who want a television with more inches for less money, and those looking for a better image quality without paying the extra cost of OLEDs. Maintaining low prices for a technology such as Mini-LED, which provides a very noticeable leap in terms of image quality, is essential in TCL’s trajectory. While brands like Samsung, LG or Sony differentiate themselves through their own processors and algorithms, TCL has opted for another way: controlling everything from the factory, but focusing on the hardware (panels) which is what it really controls. For this reason, TCL televisions do not have image processing or algorithms as refined as those of Samsung, LG or Sony, which have dedicated their efforts to developing them. For now, that is not your battlefield. Their focus is on the mid-range and volume, where good “high enough” quality outsells any AI algorithm. This strategy eliminates intermediaries and significantly reduces the cost of each panel. Their production of Mini-LED screens increased in 2024 and 2025, which has allowed them to amortize the technology faster by applying very tight margins and making it cheaper even when the competition still reserves it for its premium models. TCL sponsorship of the Spanish team TCL’s strategy regarding its prices is very reminiscent of Xiaomi’s in mobile phones from a few years ago. That strategy consisted of selling units with almost no margin until they gained market share, consolidated the brand and, from there, went up a notch towards more profitable premium products with investments in their own R&D. In that sense, TCL would already be on the second step: consolidating the market. All this happens just before the 2026 World Cup, an event that historically boosts sales of large televisions. And there TCL has an ideal product: Large format mini-LED at prices well below the competition and with a brand image close to … Read more

TCL has democratized technology with a new range of televisions

TCL has marked a significant milestone with the presentation of its new range of televisions by the year 2025. The new family of TVs of the C series is a torpedo to the competition flotation line in the mid -range and high range, in which TCL no longer only offers a competitive price, but also democratizes the quality of the Minned screens. The minied has ceased to be exclusive. To date, only the high -end models of the brands mounted minied screens, sometimes, as in the Sony caserelegating the OLED panels to the background. However, the new C6K model that TCL has presented has hit the table riding a screen like those that mount the high -end televisions, but with a price a step below, standing in a price range that is kept below the most top models of its competition. The screen chosen for the C6K TCL has the addition of a QD (quantum dots) filter of quantum points, which filters the light according to its frequency band to obtain more lived and pure colors, taking advantage of the fact that the Minned technology allows to better segment the attenuation areas to enhance the contrast and approach the values ​​of the OLED. Minilad for all. Undoubtedly, one of the most prominent aspects of this renovation of the TCL C series is the incorporation of these Mini LED panels 7th generation in the mid -range. With that movement, the brand promises to bring the improved visual experience offered by these panels to a broader audience. As we say, the use of these panels implies a significant increase in terms of brightness, contrast and chromatic precision, characteristics that until now were reserved for high -end models, while traditionally, mid -range televisions compromised their image quality in pursuit of an improvement in its price. TCL has just demolished that border opening a new market in terms of quality and price. The TCL miniled is going to give a lot of play. Gaming has an increasingly important role in the televisions segment. However, due to brightness and contrast levels, the image quality in mid -range models were not always up to the expectations of users who expected to maximize the graphic and HDR capabilities offered by current consoles. TCL has also given special attention to making the most of the advantages of the Mini LED panels in this range with the Q6C series, which not only not only offer the refreshment rate benefits of the LED panels, but also provides the improvements in shine and contrast to make better use of the HDR of the games, expanding the viewing angles without shooting its price. The new Minned panels of the TCL Gaming range allow to maintain the support for VRR frequency rates of up to 144 Hz and AMD Freesync Premium, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision IQ support so that TV and console are synchronized to offer the best graphic quality. More pressure for the mid -range. With this movement, TCL seeks to close the gap between quality expectations and the purchase budget. This not only benefits users who can access a better visual quality without having to pay the cost of high -end models, but also allows TCL to press a little more to their competition by maintaining tight prices, but offering a better performance screen technology. In Xataka | TCL X955, first impressions: Thanks to its 5,000 nits this is the most spectacular mini TV that we have tried Image | TCL

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