Sony 2009 Annual Report Download - page 30

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The home entertainment market, and DVD sales in particular,
was impacted by the economic downturn in calendar year 2008,
affecting all the major studios. However, strong adoption rates
of the Blu-ray Disc format by consumers continue, with disc unit
sales double those of last year for the first quarter of calendar year
2009.*5
*3 Nielsen VideoScan retail channel POS January 1 through December 28, 2008
*4 Richard Cooper, Senior Analyst, Video, Screen Digest, March 9, 2009
*5 Video Business, April 15, 2009
Television
In March 2009, SPE announced that its U.S. and international
television divisions were uniting as Sony Pictures Television (SPT)
to take strategic advantage of the globalization of the television
market.
SPT had a strong year in the U.S. market with the critical
success of productions like Damages, Rescue Me, Breaking
Bad and A Raisin in the Sun. SPT productions received 29
Primetime Emmy® nominations—the most in SPE’s history—and
went on to win six awards. SPT productions also received 28
Daytime Emmy® nominations and won five awards. Last summer,
SPT announced an agreement with Oprah Winfrey’s television
production company, Harpo Productions, to produce and
distribute a syndicated show that will feature Dr. Mehmet Oz, the
renowned heart surgeon and author. The show debuts in the U.S.
in September 2009.
SPT continues to have success in the development of new
television shows for the U.S. broadcast and cable networks. For
the 2008–2009 television season, the FOX and ABC networks
ordered SPT shows Sit Down, Shut Up and The Unusuals, and
the Turner and Lifetime cable networks ordered HawthoRNe
and Drop Dead Diva. In the popular unscripted (“reality” or “light
entertainment”) format, SPT had three pilots ordered for cable and
broadcast network series including The Newlywed Game on GSN.
In addition, the studio produced pilots for the 2009–2010 season
that resulted in two new scripted series for broadcast networks:
Community on NBC and Brothers on FOX.
Internationally, SPT and its distribution arm had continued
growth and success due to the popularity of SPE’s motion
pictures and TV series around the world. The studio’s global
channel network includes 114 channel feeds in 130 countries
reaching approximately 400 million viewers worldwide. The
group bolstered production of the unscripted format through the
acquisition of the Dutch production company 2waytraffic and
an investment in the Colombian television production company
Teleset.
March 2009 saw significant developments for SPT in India.
Multi Screen Media Private Limited, SPE’s joint venture television
networks business in India, signed an agreement to air the
popular IPL cricket tournament on its SET MAX television channel
for up to eight years, with an option for a ninth. SPT also entered
the Bengal region with the acquisition of Channel 8, India’s only
Bengali language film channel.
Digital Production
Sony Pictures Digital Productions (SPDP) continued its production
of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the next animated feature
from SPE, which will be released in 3-D in September 2009.
The unit also announced development deals with the Gotham
Group, a leading production firm, and with Platinum Studios,
which controls an international library of comic and graphic novel
content, to produce animated films.
Sony Picture’s Academy Award®-winning digital production
studio Imageworks delivered visual effects and digital character
animation to a number of films by Sony Pictures and other
studios, including Hancock for Sony Pictures and the character of
Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen for Warner Bros., and continues to
be a leader in 3-D stereoscopic production.