Sony Media Group

Sony Media Group (formerly Sony Entertainment) is a global entertainment company established in 2012. It focuses on most of Sony's motion picture, television and music businesses. It is a subsidiary of the Japanese Sony Group, managed by Sony's American subsidiary, Sony of America.

As Sony Entertainment
On March 30, 2012, Michael Lynton, co-chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), was named as CEO of Sony Corporation of America to oversee all of Sony's global entertainment businesses and Nicole Seligman, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Sony Corporation, was named as president. On April 9, 2013, Lynton renewed his contract with the company.

On February 18, 2016, Seligman resigned after 15 years working for Sony and remained with the company until the end of March.

On January 13, 2017, Lynton announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Sony Entertainment and chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment to be chairman for Snap Inc. He was later replaced by Anthony Vinciquerra on June 1, 2017 after he was named as chairman/CEO of SPE.

It was reported in December of 2016 by multiple news outlets that Sony was considering restructuring its U.S. operations by merging its TV & film business, Sony Pictures Entertainment, with its gaming business, Sony Interactive Entertainment. According to the reports, such a restructuring would have placed Sony Pictures under Sony Interactive's CEO, Andrew House, though House wouldn't have taken over day-to-day operations of the film studio. According to one report, Sony was set to make a final decision on the possibility of the merger of the TV, film, & gaming businesses by the end of its fiscal year in March of the following year (2017). However, judging by Sony's activity in 2017, the rumored merger never materialized.

On July 17, 2019, Sony announced that they will merge Sony Music Entertainment and Sony/ATV Music Publishing to form the Sony Music Group. The merger was finalized on August 1, 2019.

Key personnel

 * Tony Vinciquerra (Chairman and CEO)
 * Thomas Rothman (Chairman of Film & Television)
 * Stanford Panitch (President, feature film production)
 * Josh Greenstein (President, feature film distribution and marketing)
 * Jeff Frost (President, Sony Television Studios)
 * Keith le Goy (Chairman of Media Networks)
 * Rob Stringer (Chairman of Music & Live)
 * Kevin Kellher (Chief Operating Officer)
 * Ron Perry (Chairman & CEO, Columbia Records)
 * Sylvia Rhone (Chairman & CEO, Epic Records)
 * Randy Goodman (Chairman & CEO, Sony Music Nashville)
 * Stacy Green (Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer)
 * Jon Hookstratten (Executive Vice President, Administration & Operations)
 * Robert Lawson (Executive Vice President & Chief Communications Officer)

Film & Television
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE) is the television and film production/distribution unit of Sony. With 12.5% box office market share in 2011, the company was ranked third among movie studios. Its group sales in 2010 were US$7.2 billion. The company has produced many notable movie franchises, including Spider-Man, The Karate Kid and Men in Black. It has also produced the popular television game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

Sony entered the television and film production market when it acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989 for $3.4 billion. Film Production


 * Columbia Pictures: Founded in 1924 by Harry Cohn, Sony acquired the studio in 1989 from The Coca-Cola Company for $3.4 billion.
 * TriStar Pictures: Formed in 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS. Became part of The Coca-Cola Company in December 1987 and the Sony ownership in 1989. Was relaunched in 2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit that specializes in the genre and independent films.
 * TriStar Productions: A joint-venture between Thomas Rothman and SPE.
 * Screen Gems: Originally Columbia's animation division and later a television production company best known for TV's Bewitched and The Partridge Family, as well as bringing The Three Stooges short subjects to TV in 1958. Sony revived the Screen Gems brand in 1998 to develop mid-priced movies (production budget of between $20 million and $50 million) in specific genres such as science fiction, horror, black cinema and franchise films.
 * Sony Pictures Imageworks
 * Sony Pictures Animation


 * Sony Pictures Classics
 * Sony Worldwide Acquisitions (SWA): A Sony division which acquires and produces about 60 films per year for a wide variety of distribution platforms, especially for non-theatrical markets. It had been called Worldwide SPE Acquisitions, Inc. until September 2010.
 * Destination Films: A motion picture company which currently specializes in action, thriller, sci-fi, niche and low-end to medium-end horror films was purchased by Sony in 2001.
 * Stage 6 Films: A direct-to-video label created in 2007. Also releases some films theatrically.
 * Affirm Films: A motion picture label launched in 2008 to release gospel and Christian films.

U.S. TV Production


 * Sony Television Studios (formerly Columbia TriStar Television Group and Sony Pictures Television) is the successor-in-interest to Columbia's television division (first Screen Gems, later Columbia Pictures Television, TriStar Television, and Columbia TriStar Television), as of 2004 the unit was producing 60 titles for various television outlets globally. STS contains a library that includes more than 35,000 episodes of more than 270 television series and 22,000 game show episodes under the Sony Pictures Television brand.
 * Embassy Row: A television and digital production company by Michael Davies. SPT acquired the company on January 14, 2009.
 * TriStar Television: Originally launched in 1986 and folded into Columbia Pictures Television in 1988. Relaunched in 1991 and became in-name-only in 1999. Relaunched again in 2015 as a production label within SPT.

International TV Production


 * 2waytraffic: Acquired by Sony in 2008, this television production company owns a number of formats, most notably including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
 * Blueprint Television: (small stake)
 * Electric Ray: Founded by Karl Warner with SPT in January 2014.
 * Floresta
 * Huaso: A Chinese joint venture production company launched in 2004 by Sony Pictures Television International and Hua Long Film Digital Production Co., Ltd. of the China Film Group in Beijing.
 * Lean-M Producers Center: A Russian production company founded in 2000 by Timur Weinstein and Oleg Osipov, later joined by Vyacheslav Murugov. In 2007, SPTI acquired a majority stake in Lean-M, with an additional 16% on April 13, 2009 and the remainder in 2010.
 * Left Bank Pictures: A UK production company founded by Andy Harries, Francis Hopkinson, and Marigo Kehoe in 2007. Majority stake acquired by SPT in 2012.
 * Playmaker Media: An Australian production company acquired by SPT in 2014.
 * Starling
 * Stellify Media: A joint venture between SPT, Kieran Doherty, and Matt Worthy launched in 2014 for Northern Ireland.
 * Teleset

Content Distribution


 * Sony Film Releasing: Founded in 1994 as a successor to Triumph Releasing Corporation. The unit handles distribution, marketing, and promotion for films produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment; including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, among others.
 * Sony Film Releasing International (formerly Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International)
 * Sony Pictures India: A production house established by Sony to release Indian movies and distribute Hollywood movies released under Columbia Pictures.
 * Sony Pictures Home Entertainment: Founded in 1978 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment. Currently manufactures and distributes the Sony film and television libraries on Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, DVD, VHS, UMD and digital download
 * Sony Wonder: The former kids and family label of Sony Music Entertainment that was moved to SPHE on June 21, 2007.
 * Genius Brands (minority stake)
 * Funimation: A distributor and licensor of dubbing anime known for the Dragon Ball franchise, Fairy Tail, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece and My Hero Academia. SPT acquired 95% of Funimation in 2017.
 * Manga Entertainment Ltd.: A distributor of anime. Funimation acquired Manga Entertainment UK in 2019.

Music & Live
Through its music division, Sony Media Group is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big three" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony.

It was originally founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation and renamed as Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938, following its acquisition by the Columbia Broadcasting System. In 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records, and Sony Corporation bought the company in 1988, renaming it under its current name in 1991. In 2004, Sony and Bertelsmann established a 50-50 joint venture known as Sony BMG, which transferred the businesses of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group into one entity. However, in 2008, Sony acquired Bertelsmann's stake, and the company reverted to the Sony Music name shortly after; the buyout allowed Sony to acquire all of BMG's labels, and led to the dissolution of BMG, which instead relaunched as BMG Rights Management.

The division owns the publishing rights to over 4 million compositions, including The Beatles' Lennon-McCartney catalogue, Bob Dylan, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift.

Sony Media Group’s music division owns a number of record labels, including:


 * Columbia Records
 * Arista Records
 * RCA Records
 * Epic Records
 * Sony Music Nashville
 * Sony Masterworks
 * Sony Music UK
 * Sony Music Publishing