The new sony TV arm plots overseas growth

Sony's Andy Kaplan, second from right, with Imax's Take advantage of Lister left, 3net's Tom Cosgrove and Discovery's Bruce Campbell, celebrate 3net's launch.A 26-year-old government clerk in one of India's weakest regions made head lines worldwide recently like a "real-existence 'Slumdog Millionaire'?" after he grew to become the very first contestant to win a $a million jackpot on India's version of "Who would like to Be considered a Uniform."Nobody was more happy to determine Sushil Kumar's win generate a lot attention as Andy Kaplan along with other executives at The new sony Pictures TV, since the incident demonstrates the depth of Sony's growing opportunities in worldwide TV systems and programming.India's edition of "Who would like to Be considered a Uniform" is transported around the The new sony Entertainment Television (SET) funnel that serves among the world's most populous nations. The excitement around Kumar's win has increased rankings for that funnel considerably -- a lot to ensure that it's rated because the No. 1 entertainment cable funnel within the highly competitive marketplace this season. In addition, The new sony Pictures TV is the owner of the show and privileges towards the "Uniform" format entirely through its acquisition in 2008 of Nederlander production company 2waytraffic (which acquired the home from original "Uniform" producer, Celador).Kaplan continues to be in the helm of this train for The new sony Pictures TV within the last nine years. As prexy of worldwide systems, he headed the push to plow new fields for Sony's key funnel brands -- The new sony Entertainment Television, AXN, Animax and The new sony Spin. Previously decade, The new sony has utilized the huge growth of TV platforms in Asia, Latin America along with other regions and it has 120 channels airing in 159 nations and 22 languages.The "Uniform" windfall was an unpredictable turn of excellent fortune for SET, which already is just one of India's most well-established entertainment channels. But the truth that The new sony had all the infrastructure in position to locate itself for the reason that position reflects Sony's resolve for trading in the portfolio of worldwide channels. Similar to the other Hollywood majors, The new sony brass see worldwide growth, particularly using their own proprietary channels, like a crucial engine of future studio profits.Kaplan, who's located in Culver City, lately signed a 3-year extension of his contract using the studio. He started his career at The new sony a lot more than two decades ago like a biz professional around the domestic production side. However when the chance to maneuver right into a job having a global purview emerged, he did not hesitate.Today, the channels wing utilizes about 1,500 folks offices all over the world. Kaplan also runs the studio's curiosity about 3net, the three dimensional cable funnel that's a partnership of The new sony, Discovery Communications and Imax Corp."The truly amazing factor relating to this business would be that the macroeconomic factors of every particular region and country are extremely different it's always difficult to start and run these companies," Kaplan states. "The enjoyment part is determining the way we run channels which have some (worldwide) commonalities but they are still various and specific to every territory."Sony's channels offer a mixture of U.S.-created entertainment fare, whether The new sony productions or shows using their company galleries, and in your area created programming."We acquire from everyone," Kaplan states. "Our obligation would be to program our systems using the best available programming to find the biggest audience."The flagship The new sony Entertainment Television brand was created like a general entertainment outlet (think USA Network) that has a tendency to draw more women audiences. AXN, using its focus on action-adventure fare, sways more male. Animax is customized to animation enthusiasts while Spin is targeted toward teens and teenagers. At the moment, Kaplan's focus is on adding more channels in regions where it already includes a large footprint, and stretching its achieve into key growth areas for example Poultry and also the Middle East.Sony's channels arm doesn't have shortage of competition from individuals run by Fox, Time Warner, Disney and Viacom, amongst others, and every one of the majors have noticeably been arriving the amount and profile of original programming. Kaplan leaped at the opportunity to use Canuck production giant eOne in creating a wholly original legal drama series for that AXN channels according to John Grisham's novel "The Firm" with author-producer Lukas Reiter ("Law & Order") along with other U.S.-based creatives onboard.The show switched the standard domestic-to-worldwide scripted series sales path on its ear if this arrived an offer with NBC -- lengthy after it had been already greenlighted for production for AXN along with other shops. "Firm" has become looking for an international rollout at the begining of The month of january.For Kaplan, the knowledge with "Firm" is a good example of just how much the company landscape for programming has become progressively more globally focused. Which puts The new sony inside a good position to succeed with the achieve and diversity of channels in the toolbox."Fundamental essentials types of things we are really looking forward to,Inch Kaplan states. "?'The Firm' is really a method of boosting our game and getting a significantly bigger creative presence in large-budget programming. Our channels is going to be first in line of these type of occasions." Contact Cynthia Littleton at cynthia.littleton@variety.com