Sony launches non-movie content arm

Source: SAWA, Screen Digest, UK United Kingdom

August 2008

 

Sony Pictures Releasing has dedicated a new business unit to the emerging alternative content market in North America, following a similar commitment by Sony Pictures in Japan. The new unit, The Hot Ticket, will focus on distributing non-movie content programming such as theatre shows, concerts and sports events to digital screens with a minimum of 2K resolution. It will also look at expanding its remit to cover live trans-missions via satellite as well as 3D output. The launch will begin with two theatre events: Cirque du Soleil’s Delirium in August, followed by Broadway show Rent in September. Distribution will be to an estimated400-500 screens but at off-peak times to avoid clashes with screen capacity for blockbusters. Meanwhile, Livespire, Sony’s non-movie programming service in Japan, will launch with a musical, Riding the Metro, in three cinemas in the Tokyo Recreation circuit. Events will be shot in HD and will also be used topush Sony’s 4K projectors into cinemas in this territory.

 

The move shows that studios do not want to be excluded from new types of content offerings in cinemas and, indeed, already specialised in aggregating content and marketing to cinemagoers.Once studios get more involved, this will only serve to multiply the number of events and therefore boost potential revenues from those cinemas that already have digital technology installed. The development follows the success of the release of the Disney live concert 3D movie Hannah Montanna, which generated around $65m from just 683 theatres, showing that there is an appetite for live events / recordings in a cinema environment, particularly those linked with a premium orone-off limited experience. However, Sony is the first studio to make a definitive commitment tothis area, although take-up in Japan will be hindered by lack of d-screens: 89 units compared with4,500 in the US at end 2007.

 

http://the-hot-ticket.com/