Sony Group’s media networks biz in India grows in Q2 FY21

Mumbai: Sony Group Corp has released its financial results for Q2 FY2021 that ended on 30 September. The media conglomerate reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment’s (SPE) Indian business, which includes video distribution service SonyLIV and its leading broadcasting business, accounted for slightly less than 40 per cent of the sales of media networks in Q2.

Its pictures segment saw a 40 per cent increase year-on-year in sales, primarily attributed to increase in sales of television productions and media networks. The sales for the pictures segment stood at $612 million. The company also reported higher advertising revenues in India YoY.

Last month, the company signed a non-binding term sheet to merge a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel), a media company in India. Under the proposed merger, SPE would hold a majority stake in the resulting merged entity.

Under the term sheet, the two parties are conducting mutual due diligence and Zeel has agreed to negotiate exclusively with SPE for a period of 90 days with the goal of reaching definitive agreements.

“India has an economic base that is rapidly growing, primarily among the younger generation, and it is the largest linear TV market in the world that is still growing. In addition, the opportunity for digital distribution services is beginning to grow rapidly due to improvements in India’s communication infrastructure,” it said in a statement.

“As a growth area in the pictures segment, we plan to continue to proactively seek opportunities to expand this business by using the profitability of the TV broadcasting business and our content assets to strengthen our digital distribution service," it added.