Sony Pictures Is Not for Sale

Following the recent news that Amazon would be purchasing MGM Studios, and with Disney having purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019, it would seem that any number of mergers and acquisitions would be possible among major studios and corporations, though Sony CEO Yoshida Kenichiro has confirmed with the Financial Times (per Variety) that the company’s film and television operations are not for sale. As evidenced by some of the biggest mergers in recent years, a major motivating factor in these deals relates to companies that already have streaming platforms, allowing them to acquire coveted properties to expand them in direct-to-consumer markets, which Sony isn’t wary of.

“There is drastic realignment in the media industry, but I think our strategy of creating content as an independent studio while working with various partners will work,” Kenichiro detailed. “I think the reason we were able to sign good deals with Netflix and Disney is because they were attracted to our PlayStation Productions pipeline. We can strengthen our ability to create content through such group-wide collaboration.”

A major component of Disney acquiring Fox meant that not only did the company then take ownership of the rights to a variety of beloved properties, but also ownership of streaming service Hulu, allowing the company to deliver audiences an even wider variety of original content across various streaming services. Similarly, Amazon purchasing MGM will allow it develop more original films and TV series directly to Amazon Prime subscribers.

While Sony has dabbled with developing streaming projects exclusively for the PlayStation Network, they haven’t found nearly as much success in that realm, instead relying on advantageous deals for Netflix and Disney to stream their titles.

“Sony plans to strengthen its initiatives in the service, mobile, and social spaces to further expand these communities, and seeks to expand the number of people around the world directly connected to the Sony Group due to their desire to consume entertainment from the current number of approximately 160 million to 1 billion people,” Kenichiro shared. These plans include “strengthening the PlayStation Now cloud streaming game service and … investing in or partnering with external studios.”

After many delays, the highly anticipated Uncharted movie, based on the best-selling video game series, is currently in production, while Sony’s roster of Spider-Man and Venom-related projects continues to expand in exciting ways, which includes this fall’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage and next year’s Morbius.

Are you glad Sony isn’t planning on being sold anytime soon? Let us know in the comments below!