Sony continued its run of quarterly losses and showed a net loss of 26.3 billion yen ($292 million) for its second quarter with a decline in sales at Sony Pictures, Consumer Products (TVs), Sony Ericcson and Sony Computer Entertainment, the company reported today.  These #s compare with their profit of 20.8 billion yen a year ago, making this current quarter Sony's fourth straight quarterly decline.

Sales for the quarter that ended September 30, 2009 also went southward, dropping 19.8 percent to 1.66 trillion yen ($18.26 billion) from 2.07 trillion yen in the year-ago quarter. 

Recent cost cuts, that included layoffs, and increased sales of the price reduced Playstation 3 game console provided some relief, but Sony was hurt by a  downturn in sales for its Playstation 2 despite its recent claims that PS2 was "showing no signs of slowing down." Weak demand for the Vaio line of PCs, also dragged down the quarter and had revenue in the Networked Product and Services division, which includes Sony Computer Entertainment, fell 24.2 percent to 352.6 billion yen from 465.2 billion yen in the year-ago quarter.

The Consumer Products and Devices operation, which includes TVs and cameras, watched its sales plummet 36.5 percent to 799.9 billion yen from 1.25 trillion yen a year ago. Sales were down for Sony's Bravia HDTVs due to intense price competition and the higher value of the yen. The company's Cybershot digital cameras also were impacted negatively.

Lower sales at both their theatrical biz and at the home entertianment division (Sony Pictures Entertainment) hurt Sony as well, with revenue down 30.4 percent to 136.4 billion yen from 196.1 billion yen in 2008's second quarter. The continued decline in consumer interest for DVDs and BluRay discs and the impact "rock bottom" DVD pricing seems unlikely to stop.

Sony Ericsson also affected the quarter with sales of 1.6 million euros ($2.36 million), a 42 percent decline from 2.8 million euros in the year-ago quarter.  A continued drag on Sony's earnings, the cell phone maker has struggled to turn a profit in recent years.

One positive, yet temporary, spot was Sony's music business, which had a 147 percent boost in revenue to 124.5 billion yen, due in great part from the sales of Michael Jackson's music catalog, after his death in June. This, of course, is a rare occurence and the trend of declining cd sales will likely resume.

Sony recently announced that their Playstaion 3 will offer Netflix streaming, a move it hopes will bump sales of the game console even higher though likely negatively impact its declining DVD and Blu Ray business.