Sony’s TV ASPs Jumped 38% Year Over Year in Fiscal Q1: CFO

Sony sold 2.2 million TVs globally in fiscal Q1 ended June 30, up 47% from the year-earlier quarter and a 10% increase sequentially from fiscal Q4, reported the company Wednesday. Sony sold 2.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles in Q1, 30% fewer than in Q4 and down 49% from peak shipments of 4.5 million in Q3 when the PS5 was introduced. There’s no change to Sony’s target of selling more than 14.8 million PS5s in the year ending March 31, the same number of PS4s sold in the first full fiscal year after its launch, Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki told analysts and reporters in Tokyo. “In the TV business, the market for high-value-added, large-screen products, which is our focus, remains strong, but we are beginning to see a decline in the stay-at-home demand that has continued since last fiscal year in the market for low-priced, small- and medium-sized products.” Though TV panel supplies are tight, said Totoki, “we have maintained price and shifted our focus to higher-value-added models, resulting in our average selling price rising a significant 38% year on year.” The increased mix of higher-priced, higher-margin TVs helped drive an operating income improvement of 80.6 billion yen ($736.4 million) in Sony's core Electronics Products & Solutions segment, said Totoki. COVID-19's recent resurgence in Southeast Asia “has caused governments to place restrictions on personal and corporate activity,” said the CFO. “We have had to reduce our operations at our factories in Malaysia from the end of May. There is a risk that parts of our component supply chain could also be negatively impacted.” Sony has secured the inventory of chips necessary to meet its PS5 sales target for the fiscal year, said Totoki. In consumer electronics, “we do use a lot of semiconductors in various areas, so some availability of parts and components is a source of concern,” he said. “But we do have access to second sources, and for parts and components, we have some strategic inventory as well.” For the short term, “we have been able to control the situation, but going forward, we cannot remain complacent,” he said. The scarcest commodity during the global chip shortage is “access to good information,” he said.