Company type | Division |
---|---|
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | 2012 |
Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Kenichiro Yoshida (chairman and CEO) |
Products | |
Number of employees | 18,000 |
Parent | Sony Corporation of America |
Subsidiaries |
Sony Entertainment, Inc. is the umbrella entertainment division of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation and managed by its American subsidiary, established in 2012 to oversee the corporation's ventures in film, television and music. [1]
On March 30, 2012, then-co-chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, Michael Lynton, and executive vice president and general counsel of Sony, Nicole Seligman, were respectively named as CEO and president of Sony Corporation of America to oversee all of Sony's global entertainment businesses. [2] On April 9, 2013, Lynton renewed his contract with Sony and was elevated to the presidency at Sony Entertainment. [3]
On February 18, 2016, Seligman resigned after a decade and half with the company but remained there until March 31. [4]
On January 13, 2017, Lynton announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Sony Entertainment and Sony Pictures and chairman of the latter to become chairman for Snap Inc. [5] [6] and was later replaced by Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Anthony Vinciquerra on 11 May 2017. [7]
News outlets including The New York Post , Complete Music Update and TheStreet reported on December 19, 2016, about Sony was considering a restructuring of its American operations by merging Sony Pictures with Sony Interactive Entertainment which would have placed Sony Pictures under Sony Interactive's then-CEO, Andrew House, though House wouldn't have taken over day-to-day operations of Sony Pictures. [8] [9] However, a Sony spokesperson denounced any sort of planned merger or restructuring of any of the Sony media divisions at that time in an interview with the latter source. [10]
Sony announced a merger of Sony Music Entertainment and Sony/ATV Music Publishing to form the umbrella "Sony Music Group" on July 17, 2019, and was finalized on August 1. [11] On February 10, 2021, Sony/ATV Music Publishing reverted to rebranding as Sony Music Publishing. [12]
Other Sony entertainment umbrellas are Sony Interactive Entertainment and their PlayStation Studios, which have a presence on numerous platforms. Across all of Sony's electronics and the PlayStation brand, and is extremely diversified across Apple iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Xbox. [14] [15] [16] This includes the apps for their streaming services such as Crunchyroll (including Funimation), [17] Great American Pure Flix (with Great American Media), [18] Sony Pictures Core (formerly Bravia Core), [19] and India's SonyLIV. [20]
Funimation was an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America. It streamed popular series, such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, YuYu Hakusho, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Black Clover, Fruits Basket, Assassination Classroom and Tokyo Ghoul among many others. The service and its parent company were acquired by Sony, who ran the service through Sony Pictures Entertainment from 2017 to 2019 and then through SPE and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex from 2019 to its closure in 2024. In 2021, Sony acquired Crunchyroll.
Sony Pictures Television Inc. is an American television production and distribution company. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainment and a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment through multiple platforms.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American global mass media and entertainment company. Originally a Canadian company, it was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California. In addition to its flagship Lionsgate Films division, its other divisions include Lionsgate Television and Lionsgate Interactive. It owns a variety of subsidiaries such as 3 Arts Entertainment, Pilgrim Media Group, Starz Inc., and Entertainment One.
Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio founded by Fred Seibert, which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was formally launched by Seibert in 1998, with its initial formation in January of the prior year. Seibert remained at the company until founding FredFilms, its successor company in February 2021. The studio has been credited with producing various media projects, predominantly in children's animation. Their slogan is "Original Cartoons since 1998." The studio has locations in New York City, where Frederator Digital is based, and Burbank, California.
The Sony Corporation of America is the American arm of the Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. Headquartered in New York City, the company manages Sony's business in the United States.
Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short, is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is operating independently from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry. Its subsidiaries include the Japanese animation production enterprise, Aniplex, which was established in September 1995 as a joint-venture between Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, but which in 2001 became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was prominent in the early to mid '90s producing and licensing music for animated series such as Roujin Z from acclaimed Japanese comic artist Katsuhiro Otomo and Capcom's Street Fighter animated series.
Right Stuf Inc. was an American video publisher and distributor of video programming that specialized in Asian entertainment. It had several divisions including: Nozomi Entertainment (production) and RightStufAnime.com. In March 2012, Right Stuf launched 5 Points Pictures, its live action label. Right Stuf also offered production services and distribution for Japanese labels Sunrise Inc., Eleven Arts, Pony Canyon, and its corporate sibling, Aniplex of America.
Paramount Television Studios, formerly the second incarnation of Paramount Television, is the television arm of American film studio Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global, founded on March 4, 2013 by its predecessor, Viacom, following an emerging vigorous business with the technological expansion of television via streaming services. Paramount also recognized that television could give them little to fall back on when films fail, except for studio stage rentals.
Michael Mark Lynton is a businessman and current chairman of Snap Inc. He previously served as chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In 2017, Lynton stepped down as CEO of Sony Entertainment to become Chairman of Snap, makers of the Snapchat mobile app. On February 12, 2019, he was named as chairman of Warner Music Group.
Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by East Asian media, including Japanese anime, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with a Japanese branch located in Shibuya, Tokyo.
The Channel Frederator Network is an American animation, video game and pop culture Multi-Channel Network (MCN) founded by cartoon producer and serial media entrepreneur Fred Seibert and managed by Frederator Networks.
Kartoon Studios, Inc., formerly known as Genius Brands International (GBI), is an entertainment company headed by Andy Heyward. The company was formed from the merger of Genius Brands International and A Squared Entertainment.
Wow Unlimited Media is a Canadian animation and media holding company. It was formed as a result of a merger between Rainmaker Entertainment, Frederator Networks and Ezrin Hirsh Entertainment (EHE). The company is currently a subsidiary of US-based Kartoon Studios.
VRV was an American over-the-top streaming service launched in November 2016 by AT&T and the Chernin Group. Owned by Crunchyroll, LLC, run by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex, the service bundled together anime, speculative fiction, and gaming-related channels aimed at fans of such content.
A Sony spokesman said no such merger is planned.