Sony Pictures Television

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Sony Pictures Television, Inc.
Type Subsidiary
Founded 2002
Headquarters Culver City, California, USA United States
Key people Steve Mosko [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] President
Industry Television Production
Television Syndication
Owner(s) Sony Corporation
Parent Sony Pictures Entertainment
Website www.sonypicturestelevision.com

Sony Pictures Television, Inc. (SPT) is an American television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.

SPT was previously known as Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures Television, TriStar Television and Columbia TriStar Television. The name was changed to reflect the Sony brand in 2002.

The company also owns and distributes the shows from Tandem Productions, ELP Communications (from TAT to ELP Communications), TeleVentures, Merv Griffin Enterprises, Barris Industries, Barry & Enright Productions, Stewart Tele Enterprises, and 2waytraffic.

From 2005 until 2006, SPT also distributed MGM's TV shows and movie library (due in part to the Sony-led consortium's purchase of MGM). In 2006, SPT joined forces with Program Partners to handle ad-sales and distribution rights to foreign television series in the U.S., mostly shows produced in Canada.

In Summer 2007, the company introduced The Minisode Network; a digital channel for MySpace airing shows from the 1960s to early 2000s from four to five minutes. In Winter 2007, The Minisode Network was also added to a few more sites like AOL TV and their Crackle site.

SPT owns one-half of cable channel GSN (with Liberty Entertainment), owner of Crackle, a partner in FEARnet, the horror/thriller website and VOD service, and jointly owns the rights to most of the post-1947 Bob Hope film library such as My Favorite Brunette, The Lemon Drop Kid, The Seven Little Foys, The Great Lover, and Son of Paleface with FremantleMedia.

On June 4, 2008, SPT bought Hilversum, Netherlands-based production company 2waytraffic, international holders of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise.[1]

On January 14, 2009, SPT acquired Embassy Row, a television and digital production company by British television producer Michael Davies.

Contents

[edit] Shows produced and/or distributed by SPT

In addition to the Columbia TriStar Pictures theatrical library, SPT handles the following:

[edit] Current programming

[edit] Off-net Syndication

[edit] Library Programming

[edit] Screen Gems to Sony Pictures Television

(All series by Screen Gems, CPT, TriStar TV, Columbia TriStar TV, Adelaide Productions, and SPT; some having gone through distribution from Colex Enterprises)

[edit] Screen Gems
[edit] Columbia Pictures Television
[edit] TriStar Television
[edit] Columbia TriStar Television
[edit] Adelaide Productions
Note: Adelaide serves as copyright holder and producer of the following shows, but bears the logo of the respective SPE branch.
[edit] Sony Pictures Television

[edit] Program Partners

3

[edit] Barris Industries

  • (Note: Formerly known as Chuck Barris Productions).

[edit] Guber-Peters Entertainment Company

[edit] Barry & Enright Productions

[edit] Stephen J. Cannell Productions

[edit] Castle Rock Entertainment

[edit] Merv Griffin Entertainment

[edit] New World Television

[edit] Bud Yorkin & Norman Lear

includes Tandem Productions and ELP Communications

[edit] Tandem

[edit] TOY Productions

[edit] ELP Communications

Formerly T.A.T. Communications (1975-1982) and Embassy Communications (1982-1988).

[edit] Spelling-Goldberg Productions

(bold text indicates a Spelling-Goldberg/CPT co-production)

[edit] Stewart Tele Enterprises

(Note: Formerly Bob Stewart Productions)

[edit] 2waytraffic

[edit] Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions

[edit] Others

[edit] Notes

1. Jeannie and The Partridge Family 2200 A.D. were co-produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions with Screen Gems and Columbia Pictures Television. However, SPT owns the series due to the incarnations of I Dream of Jeannie and The Partridge Family. While Hanna-Barbera shows were distributed by Screen Gems from 1957 to 1967, they are now owned and distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution.

2. Punky Brewster was produced by NBC Productions from 1984 to 1986. When NBC canceled it, Columbia Pictures Television bought the syndication rights and the rights to produce another two seasons of episodes, as it was against FCC regulations for networks to be involved in syndicated programming at the time. SPT holds US television distribution rights, while NBC Universal International Television Distribution holds non-US television distribution rights and licenses DVD release rights to Shout! Factory. See also: fin-syn.

3. SPT joined forces with Program Partners by handling ad-sales and distribution rights of programs in the US. The company is not owned by Sony.

4. Hunter was co-produced by Lorimar Productions throughout its whole run. The series was distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures until TeleVentures later picked up the distribution rights around the early 1990s. SPT currently owns US television distribution rights by owning TeleVentures, MGM International Television Distribution to handle international rights through NBC Universal International Television Distribution, while Warner Bros. Entertainment owns ancillary rights, and Starz Home Entertainment handling DVD releases; recently, DVD rights of the show have passed to Mill Creek Entertainment.

5. Warner Bros. Entertainment, who owns Castle Rock Entertainment, holds ownership rights of Thea and Seinfeld. SPT currently owns distribution rights to these shows and certain Castle Rock properties.

6. Merv Griffin's Crosswords is distributed by Program Partners. NBC Universal Television Distribution and Sony Pictures Television handle ad-sales for the series.

7. The final season of Diff'rent Strokes featured a Tandem Productions copyright but a closing logo for Embassy Television on its original ABC broadcasts.

8. SPT owns all existing episodes of incarnations of Pyramid hosted by Dick Clark with the following exceptions:

9. On December 2006, 2waytraffic acquired Celador's television properties, including the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire franchise. On January 2007, Celador International was merged with and reincorporated as 2waytraffic International. The closing logo of 2waytraffic was added in September 2007, and SPE acquired 2waytraffic in 2008. It has been used only on the syndicated version.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links