When was Sony Pictures Television established?
719515#0
Sony Pictures Television Inc. (or SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio founded in 2002 as the successor to Columbia TriStar Television. Based in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment and a unit of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.
Sony Pictures Television
719515#4
On September 16, 2002, Sony Pictures Entertainment retired the name "Columbia TriStar" from television and renamed the American studio as Sony Pictures Television and its international division as Sony Pictures Television International. Some shows continued using the CTDT name, although many stopped using it in November 2002, while "Hollywood Squares" continued using it until early 2003.
Sony Pictures Television
26989#64
Sony entered the television and film production market when it acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989 for $3.4 billion. Columbia lives on in the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of SPE which in turn owns Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures among other film production and distribution companies such as Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. SPE's television division is known as Sony Pictures Television.
For the first several years of its existence, Sony Pictures Entertainment performed poorly, leading many to suspect the company would sell off the division. Sony Pictures Entertainment encountered controversy in the early 2000s. In July 2000, a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation created a fictitious film critic, David Manning, who gave consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures that generally received poor reviews amongst real critics. Sony later pulled the ads, suspended Manning's creator and his supervisor and paid fines to the state of Connecticut and to fans who saw the reviewed films in the US. In 2006 Sony started using ARccOS Protection on some of their film DVDs, but later issued a recall.
Sony
948334#0
Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CPT) was launched on May 6, 1974 by Columbia Pictures as an American television production and distribution studio. It is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gems (SG). For 26 years, the company was active from 1974 until 2001, when it was folded into Columbia TriStar Television (which is currently known as Sony Pictures Television), a merger between Columbia Pictures Television and TriStar Television. A separate entity of CPT continues to exist on paper as an intellectual property holder, and under the moniker CPT Holdings (the initials standing for Columbia Pictures Television) to hold the copyright for the TV show "The Young and the Restless", as well as old incarnations from the company's television library such as "What's Happening!!".
Columbia Pictures Television
3087502#7
Sony Pictures Releasing is an American film distributor owned by Sony. Established in 1994 as a successor to Triumph Releasing Corporation, the company handles theatrical distribution, marketing and promotion for films produced and released by Sony Pictures Entertainment, including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, Stage 6 Films, Sony Pictures Animation, Triumph Films, among others. It is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group. It also has an international division called Sony Pictures Releasing International, which from 1991 until 2005 was known as Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International.
Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group
31133306#1
Sony Channel was made possible after Sony Pictures Television acquired channel 157 on Sky's EPG, previously owned by Film 24, in November 2010. A one-hour timeshift channel was also available from launch after the purchase of Open Access 3's Sky EPG slot on channel 190. Both Film 24 and Open Access 3 closed on 4 April 2011, to make way for previews of Sony Entertainment Television. On 15 December 2011, Sony Entertainment Television was added to Virgin Media. On 2 April 2012, Sony Entertainment Television +1 moved to Current TV's former Sky EPG slot on channel 183, with channel 190 used to launch Men&Movies +1. On 3 July 2012, Sony Entertainment Television +1 moved to channel 181.
BT agreed a deal with Sony Pictures Television to offer its Sony Entertainment Television and Sony Retro programming on-demand on BT Vision from 1 March 2010. The move marked Sony Entertainment Television's debut in the UK market, over a year ahead of the launch of the Sony Entertainment Television channel. Sony Entertainment Television and Sony Retro programming also appeared on TalkTalk TV during the YouView platform launch in 2012, but was later removed.
Sony Channel (UK and Ireland)
719515#3
SPT's history goes back to 1947, when Pioneer Telefilms was founded by Ralph Cohn, whose father Jack and uncle Harry co-founded Columbia Pictures. Pioneer was bought by Columbia and renamed in November 1948, reincorporated as Columbia Pictures Television on May 6, 1974,
and merged with sister studio TriStar Television (formed in 1986 and relaunched in 1991) to form Columbia TriStar Television on February 21, 1994.
Sony Pictures Television
719515#10
On January 14, 2009, SPT acquired Embassy Row, a television and digital production company by British television producer Michael Davies. Fourteen days later, SPTI acquired a 50% stake in Colombian independent TV production company Teleset. Three months later on April 1, Sony Pictures Entertainment consolidated its US and international television divisions under one roof. Sony Pictures Television International now operates in-name-only.
Sony Pictures Television
719515#17
On May 28, 2015, TriStar Television was re-launched as a boutique production label for Sony Pictures Television. The revived studio will be run by Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs after being in-name-only for 15 years. The first new series will be "The Good Girls Revolt" and is set to be piloted for Amazon. On September 28, 2015, Steve Mosko was promoted to chairman of SPT. He held the position as president of the television studio since 2000 when it was known as Columbia TriStar Television.
Sony Pictures Television
939909#7
Sony has since created numerous other film production and distribution units, such as creating Sony Pictures Classics for art-house fare, by forming Columbia TriStar Pictures (also known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group) by merging Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures in 1998, revitalizing Columbia's former television division Screen Gems. It expanded its operations on April 8, 2005, when a Sony-led consortium acquired the legendary Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in a US$4.8 billion leveraged buyout, through the holding company MGM Holdings Inc.
Sony Pictures
948334#7
On November 8, 1989, Sony Corporation bought Columbia Pictures Entertainment for $3.4 billion and the next day, Sony acquired the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company (formerly game show production company Barris Industries with the library of game shows including "The Newlywed Game", "The Dating Game" and "The Gong Show") for $200 million after hiring film producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters to run the company. On November 5, 1990, CPE folded its first-run syndication unit Guber-Peters Television into Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. On August 7, 1991, CPE changed its name to Sony Pictures Entertainment and TriStar Television was relaunched on October 10. Throughout the 1990s the studio launched such successful shows as "Beakman's World" on TLC and CBS in 1992, "Mad About You" on NBC in 1992, "Ricki Lakes talk show in syndication which lasted 11 years, "The Nanny" on CBS in 1993, "Party of Five" on FOX, "NewsRadio" on NBC, "Malcolm & Eddie" on UPN in 1996, and the short-lived cult animated series "The Critic" on ABC and FOX in 1994. One of the most successful by far was "Seinfeld", a Castle Rock Entertainment production which Columbia distributed in off-net syndication years later. On August 21, 1992, Columbia's subsidiary CAT Holdings, Inc. (Columbia Act III Television) and Franklin/Waterman Entertainment created a joint venture called Franklin/Waterman 2. On December 7, 1992, Sony Pictures acquired the Barry & Enright Productions game show library. On May 10, 1993, CPT and MCA TV formed their barter divisions. CPT's barter division was called Columbia Pictures Television Advertising Sales"' (a.k.a. "Columbia Television Advertising Sales"). The sales division handled series by TriStar Television and Merv Griffin Enterprises; as well as off-net series by Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Independent Productions, and Brillstein-Grey Entertainment. CPT used other companies such as Group W Productions for "Beakman's World", MTV's One World Entertainment for "Married... with Children", and Tribune Entertainment for "Designing Women".
Columbia Pictures Television