SONY EXEC PREDICTS COMEBACK FOR ITS TV DIVISION

Sony, whose Trinitron TV sets once set the gold standard for the industry but whose TV manufacturing business has been bleeding red ink for the past ten years, is hoping that it will become profitable again with a new model of its Bravia TV sets capable of accessing the Internet and displaying 4K ultra-high-definition images. Speaking to reporters today (Monday), Masashi Imamura, president of the personal imaging and sound business unit, which includes the new Sony Visual Products unit, said that he can "already see profitability" with the Android-based TVs that the company plans to introduce next April. Already, he observed, the company has been seeing its annual losses diminishing each year as it focuses on higher-margin TV models. He said that for the current fiscal year, which began on April 1, the company is aiming for a 19-percent increase in TV sales.