Few are the big film and/or entertainment studios that do not have their own streaming platform. And those who did not have it, have been bought or assimilated by others who did have it. MGM is now owned by Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery have merged into one giant, Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, Paramount is owned by ViacomCBS, and Universal Pictures is controlled by Comcast. In the midst of this continuous dance, Sony is still independent and without a great platform. Or if.
Sony Pictures, the film branch of the Japanese conglomerate, has done business with Disney thanks to its rights to the character of Spider-man, it has agreements with Netflix so that its films go through the theaters first on the red platform. It also co-produces many of the successes of other studios and has released its films to the highest bidder in the worst situation of the pandemic, as it did with greyhound, the movie starring Tom Hanks, on Apple TV+. Oh, and I almost forgot, Sony has also participated as a studio in TheBoysthe famous Amazon series.
And, as if that were not enough, in this context of streaming wars in which it participates from outside, it also has a platform. Last year Sony announced the purchase of Crunchyrolla leading platform in anime, joining its offer with Funimation, a platform that had already acquired similar content a few years ago.
Watching the ‘streaming wars’ from the anime
The purchase price of the transaction was estimated by Sony at $1.175 million from AT&T, who had invested in it years earlier and owned the majority of its shares.
The anime platform has 100 million free members and 5 million paid subscribers. Although Sony’s entry into anime streaming may seem sudden, the company has been involved in anime production for decades. In 1995, Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ) established Aniplex, a subsidiary created to manage anime and music productions.
Sony has already tried the field of streaming in a big way and did not like it. He was one of the first to enter the streaming war, launching the Crackle service the same year Netflix started its online offering. But the service didn’t turn into anything serious and they ended up getting rid of it.
Over the past five years, Sony has bolstered its portfolio of international streaming services through acquisitions, starting in 2015 with French anime streaming service Wakanim. In 2018, the company bought Australian anime distributor Madman Anime and its streaming service, AnimeLab. A year earlier, an independent subsidiary, Sony Pictures Television, acquired the American anime distributor Funimation that we have already mentioned. Later in 2019, Aniplex and Sony Pictures Television consolidated all of these streaming services together under the Funimation name.
And keeping the cinema alive
At the same time, without its own large-scale streaming service, Sony is betting bigger than its competitors on the return of cinema. Sony executives describe their commitment to theaters as part of a strategy to attract talent and to secure high prices when they sell movies to streaming services.which typically pay based on box office receipts.
Although his best-known films of this last year, such as Morbius either Uncharted They have not come out quite well, their plan is clear.
Instead of going up against Disney, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures or Paramount — all of whom are trying to use the movies they’ve produced to lure consumers to their own streaming services — Sony says bluntly that it hopes to make a cut. that situation.
“None of them can stand up to the others, but all of them can stand up to us”said Tom Rothman, chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures, adding that his company’s future will be well served if it sells movies to rivals. “Certainly it has been a zig-zag strategy. It has been very lucrative for us”, he commented in statements to the Wall Street Journal a few months ago.
Sony agreeing with everyone
Recently, Sony closed a couple of big deals to provide movies to Netflix and Disney. Sony titles released over five years, starting in 2022 — including the new Spider-man movies — will be available on Netflix after their stint in theaters.
Sony also agreed to give Netflix a first-choice pick-up for movies the studio is making specifically for streaming platforms. Later, in addition, after passing through Netflix, Sony’s releases in theaters will go to Disney, which will be able to show them on Disney Plus. Double business.
The Netflix and Disney deals, combined, are worth nearly $3 billion over several years.
In addition, Sony continues to close agreements to make television series that will be broadcast on various streaming services, such as HBO Max and Netflix, making it clear that sometimes staying out of a business that everyone is betting on can also be a very good decision. .