Sony launches international production, acquisition unit
Group purchased worldwide distribution rights to anime series starring Marvel characters
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 11/18/2008
NOV. 18 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has launched the International Product Expansion Group, a new business unit that will produce and acquire properties outside of the U.S. for worldwide distribution.
Tony Ishizuka has been named VP of International Product Expansion and will manage the new unit. He will be joined by Maxwell Mattford, director of the division.
Based at the studio’s Culver City, Calif., headquarters, the Product Expansion Group will report to T. Paul Miller, senior VP of international SPHE.
In some of its first business, the Product Expansion Group has acquired worldwide distribution rights to four anime series featuring Marvel characters. These series are set for broadcast on Japan’s Animax TV Network.
“The International Product Expansion Group will leverage the studio’s global resources and the relationships that our teams outside North America have with local entertainment producers to increase sales and market share for SPHE’s operating territories,” said Ishizuka.
Miller added, “The goal is to see each local project recoup its investment in the country in which it was produced or acquired. We can then assess each title’s prospects and leverage our global distribution system in other markets.”
