Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) continues to strike volume deals with new and existing partners. Show Tracker reveals how SPE content was distributed in recent years, and how volume deals with buyers will remain an essential part of their TV and movie content distribution strategy.
Despite the studio’s reputation as an arms dealer that is less interested in vertical integration than its studio competitors, Show Tracker reveals that the studio is not against this strategy entirely. The majority of this activity is focused in India where their shows launched on SonyLIV, the studio’s very own OTT platform.
In Sweden and Canada, Viaplay Group and Bell Media have both monopolised distribution rights of Sony shows in their respective markets with volume deals. Sony recently extended its multi-year agreement with Viaplay giving the Nordic service provider rights to release SPE films and series on its SVOD and Film Pay TV channels.
Sony also sold a handful of shows to Amazon, Paramount, Sky, Disney and Warner with acquisitions fairly even spread between these buyers.
The 2020/2021 season saw acquisitions from buyers such as Warner and Disney fall further, as they instead shifted their focus to filling their own SVOD libraries with their own content. However, Sony recently extended its deal with Warner giving the latter rights for distribution of SPE content in CEE.
Sony TV series are mainly released as either a stack (weekly episodes) or as a boxset but the strategy does differ depending on the type of service acquiring the show. Broadcasters opted to utilise Sony series through weekly stacks (mainly in Canada, Spain and US), while SVOD services were more likely to release episodes all at once (mainly in Australia and India).
Meanwhile on the movie side of distribution, 2022 saw Sony’s sales to streaming services increased by 6%, while sales to broadcasters decreased by 11%. Theatrical box office saw a dip without marquee franchise releases seen in previous years like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. 3Vision’s new Movie Tracker service reveals that Netflix is the largest buyer of Sony films since 2020 - not just in first (or pay 1) window but in the second (or pay 2) window too.
These high numbers are reflective of the large scale agreements Sony has with these players. Netflix entered into an exclusive multi-year first window agreement with Sony for the studio’s films in the US in 2021. In the UK, Germany and Italy, Sony established a long-term partnership with Sky for distribution rights in 2020. The multi-market presence of these buyers puts them well ahead in premieres of other services which have long-term partnerships with Sony. These include Telefonica in Spain, Bell Media in Canada and Viaplay in Sweden, Poland and Netherlands.
The second window also holds a lot of value for Sony. In 2022, Sony closed an agreement with Amazon Prime France for second window rights for SPE films.
Lower reported revenues for Sony shouldn’t be ringing alarm bells for investors when much of this stems from the long term (and lucrative) licensing deals initially struck in the years prior with a variety of international services. Sony continues to strike new deals for both its TV and movie content as well as renew existing ones, ensuring a steady stream of licensing opportunities for the years to come.
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