Left Bank boosts Sony TV sales

The acquisition of UK drama company Left Bank Pictures last year has helped a year-on-year third quarter revenue increase for Sony’s television business.

Left Bank is the producer behind successful series such as the UK remake of Scandinavian crime drama Wallander (pictured), sports drama The Damned United and US/UK coproduction Strike Back. It joined SPT in August 2012 in a £40 million deal (US$64 million).

Sony Pictures Television’s parent Sony Corp. singled out the producer’s impact in its Q3 financial results for the three months to September 30.

Higher catalogue programme sales were also recorded, with overall sales coming in at a converted US$462 million, though television licensing was down due to fewer theatrical film sales. SPT’s media networks also made US$356 million.

Overall, the Sony Pictures unit – which includes the television production and the international channels businesses and the motion pictures division – saw sales increase 9.1% to ¥177.8 billion (US$1.8 billion) from ¥163 billion for the same period in 2012.

However, the division made an operating loss of ¥17.8 billion (US$181 million) due to lower sales from the motion picture division, which saw big budget action movie White House Down under-perform at the box office. In Q3 2012, the Pictures division made an operating profit of ¥7.9 billion.

SPT had a record year in terms of network and cable pick ups, with the likes of The Blacklist and The Michael J. Fox Show both going to NBC, and this lead to higher year-on-year production costs.