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Tag: Sony Corp

  • SPN India to feature in SPE growth in 2018

    BENGALURU: Sony Corp (Sony) had an investors’ day on 23 May 2017 pertaining to the results for its financial year ended 31 March 2017 (FY-17). It its investor presentation, the company has forecast 12.7 percent growth in revenue of its Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) group to $9,346 million for fiscal 2018 from $8,292 million in FY-17.

    Sony’s Pictures segment is comprised of the Motion Pictures, Television Productions, and Media Networks categories.

    SPE’s Media Networks growth driven by GSN and India, somewhat offset by TEN Sports, will be among the largest factors that will impact performance positively for fiscal 2018. The company forecasts 28 percent growth in operating income to $359 million in FY-18 from $280 million in fiscal 2017 for SPE. Sony Pictures Network India (SPN India) is a part of SPE.

    Sony has planned strategies for growth of its SPE group in fiscal 2018. These include implementing turnaround for its Motion Pictures segment. Sony Corp reported a steep drop in operating income for fiscal 017, which it says was mainly due to the US$962 million (¥112.1 billion yen) impairment charge of goodwill recorded in the Motion Pictures segment.

    For SPE’s Television Production segment, Sony plans to maintain and strengthen relationships with top content producers and major networks, while for SPE’s Media Networks segment Sony plans to generate stable profit through recurring revenue business model.

    In FY-17, Sales for the SPE decreased 3.7 percent (a 5 percent increase on a U.S. dollar basis) primarily due to the impact of the appreciation of the yen against the U.S. dollar. The increase in sales on a US dollar basis was primarily due to higher sales for Television Productions and Media Networks. Sales for Television Productions increased primarily due to higher subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) licensing revenues. The increase in sales for Media Networks was due to higher advertising and subscription revenues mainly in India, Latin America and the US says the company.

    The company has also announced Anthony Vinciquerra as chairman and CEO of SPE effective 1 June 2017.

  • Q3-2015: Sony predicts higher loss for FY-2015

    Q3-2015: Sony predicts higher loss for FY-2015

    BENGALURU: About four months ago Sony Corp (Sony) had announced an expected loss of ? 50 billion for the financial year ending 31 March, 2015 (FY-2015). While announcing its forecast results for the third quarter ended 31 December, 2014 (Q3-2015), the company upgraded that figure by almost 5 times – to ? 230 billion as it wrote down the book value of its mobile communications (MC) unit.

     

    While the MC unit will cross the revenue target of ? 900 to 1100 billion during FY-2015, it is likely to incur a loss of ? 215 billion on a higher forecast income of ? 1320 billion. Sony had earlier predicted that the MC unit would have a positive operating margin of between 3 to 5 per cent.

     

    Note: Due to the aftermath of a cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (“SPE”), a consolidated subsidiary of Sony Corp (Sony) the results of which are reported as the Pictures business segment, had a serious disruption of its network and IT infrastructure. In order to provide timely disclosure of currently available financial information on a consolidated basis and foreach of its segments, Sony is disclosing forecasted results, which include the estimated impact of the cyberattack, on a consolidated basis and for the Pictures segment. Sony is also disclosing the actual results of its other segments, whose results were not impacted by the cyber attack, for the third quarter ended 31 December, 2014.The forecasts for consolidated results and the Pictures segment for the third quarter are based on the information currently available to management, and the actual results may differ from these forecasts. Sony plans on announcing its actual results for the third quarter by 31 March, 2015.

     

    Nine segments contribute to Sony numbers: Mobile Communications, Game & Network Services (G&NS), Imaging Products & Solutions (IP&S), Home Entertainment & Sound (HE&S),  Devices, Pictures, Music, Financial services, All other.

     

    The company reported a 6.1 per cent increase in operating revenue/sales in Q3-2015 at ? 2257.8 billion as compared to the ? 2410.7 billion reported in the year ago quarter.  Sony says that this increase is primarily due to the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates, an increase in MC segment sales reflecting an increase in unit sales of smartphones, an increase in Devices segment sales due to the strong performance of image sensors, and an increase in G&NS segment sales reflecting the strong performance of PlayStation 4 (PS4). This increase is expected to be partially offset by a decrease in sales in All Other, primarily related to Sony’s exit from the PC business, and a decrease in sales in the Pictures segment, mainly due to lower Motion Pictures and Television Productions sales. On a constant currency basis, sales are expected to decrease by 1per cent y-o-y.

     

    Operating income is expected to increase 89.4 billion yen y-o-y to 178.3 billion yen ($1,474 million). During the current quarter, the net income attributable to Sony stockholders more than trebled (went up 3.4 times) to ? 89 billion from ? 26.4 billion in Q3-2014.

     

    This increase is expected primarily due to an improvement in the operating results of the Devices, HE&S, G&NS, and IP&S segments. This improvement is expected to be partially offset by a decrease in operating income in the Pictures segment.

     

    Segment Results

     

    Mobile communications

    MC reported a y-o-y growth of 28.7 per cent in sales to ? 429 billion in the current quarter from the ?   333.2 billion in Q3-2014. Operating income from this segment grew 46.2 per cent to ? 9.3 billion from ? 6.3 billion reported in the year ago quarter.

     

    Game & Network Services (G&NS)

     

    Sales for the G&NS increased 16.8 per cent y-o-y (an 8 per cent increase on a constant currency basis) to ? 531.5 billion ($4,393 million). The company says that this increase was primarily due to an increase in PS4 hardware unit sales, the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates and an increase in network services revenue, partially offset by a decrease in PlayStation®3 (PS3) hardware and PS3 software sales. Sales to external customers increased 19.7 per cent y-o-y.

     

    Operating income of the unit increased ? 15.2 billion y-o-y to ? 27.6 billion yen ($228 million). This increase was primarily due to increase in sales, partially offset by the impact of the decrease in PS3 software sales, the unfavourable impact of the appreciation of the US dollar, as well as the recording of an ? 11.2 billion ($93 million) write-down of PS Vita and PS TV components.

    Imaging Products & Solutions (IP&S)

     

    Sales increased 1.5 per cent y-o-y (a 5 per cent decrease on a constant currency basis) to ? 201.0 billion ($1,661 million), primarily due to the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates, partially offset by a  decrease in unit sales of digital cameras.

     

    Operating income increased ? 10.9 billion y-o-y to ? 23.0 billion ($190 million). This increase was mainly due to a reduction in selling, general and administrative expenses and the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates, partially offset by the decrease in sales of digital cameras.

     

    Home Entertainment & Sound (HE&S)

     

    HE&S unit sales increased 2.3 per cent y-o-y (a 5 per cent decrease on a constant currency basis) to ? 413.3 billion ($3,416 million). This increase was primarily due to the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates and an increase in sales of televisions, partially offset by a decrease in Audio and Video sales. Unit sales of LCD televisions increased mainly due to an increase in North America and Europe, partially offset by a decrease in Latin America.

     

    Operating income increased ? 18.9 billion y-o-y to ? 25.3 billion ($209 million). This increase was primarily due to cost reductions, partially offset by the unfavourable impact of the appreciation of the US dollar.

     

    In Televisions, sales increased 10.1 per cent y-o-y to ? 280.6 billion ($2,319 million). This increase was primarily due to the increase in unit sales, and the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates. Operating income of ? 9.3 billion ($77 million) was recorded, compared to an operating loss of ? 5.0 billion in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

     

    Devices

     

    Devices sales increased 38.6 per cent y-o-y (a 26 per cent increase on a constant currency basis) to ?292.9 billion ($2,421million). This increase was due to an increase in sales of image sensors reflecting higher demand for mobile products, the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates, as well as an increase in sales of camera modules. Sales to external customers increased 47.2 per cent y-o-y.

     

    Operating income of ? 54.5 billion yen ($451 million) was recorded, compared to an operating loss of ? 23.5 billion in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. This improvement was primarily due to the recording of a ? 32.1 billion impairment charge related to long-lived assets in the battery business in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year, the above-mentioned increase in sales of image sensors, and the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates.

     

    Pictures forecast

     

    As a result of the cyber attack, Sony has disclosed forecasted results for the Pictures segment, which include the estimated impact of the cyber attack, for Q3-2015.

     

    Pictures unit sales are expected to have decreased 11.7 per cent y-o-y (a 23 per cent decrease on a constant currency (U.S. dollar) basis) to ? 197.6 billion yen ($1,633 million). The expected decrease in sales on a US dollar basis is primarily due to a decrease in sales for Motion Pictures and Television Productions. The expected decrease in Motion Pictures sales is due to lower home entertainment and theatrical revenues. The expected decrease in home entertainment revenues is due to fewer major home entertainment releases in the current quarter as compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year while theatrical revenues are expected to have decreased due to the stronger worldwide performance of theatrical releases in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. The expected decrease in Television Productions sales is due to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year benefitting from higher home entertainment and subscription video on demand (SVOD) revenues for the US television series ‘Breaking Bad’.

     

    Operating income is expected to have decreased ? 21.9 billion y-o-y to ? 2.4 billion ($20 million) due to decrease in Motion Pictures and Television Productions sales. The current quarter is expected to include approximately $15 million U.S. dollars (?  1.8 billion) in investigation and remediation costs relating to the above-mentioned cyberattack.

     

    Music

    Music unit sales increased 13.1 per cent y-o-y (a 3 per cent increase on a constant currency basis) to ? 163.6 billion ($1,352 million) due to the favourable impact of the depreciation of the yen against the US dollar and an increase in Recorded Music sales. Recorded Music sales increased on a constant currency basis due to the strong performance of several releases and higher digital streaming revenues. Best-selling titles included One Direction’s Four, AC/DC’s Rock or Bust, Pink Floyd’s The Endless River, Foo Fighters’ Sonic Highways and Garth Brooks’ Man Against Machine.

     

    Operating income increased ? 3.7 billion y-o-y to ? 25.4 billion yen ($210 million). This increase was due to the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates and the increase in Recorded Music sales.

     

    Financial services

    Financial services revenue increased 8.1 per cent y-o-y to ? 304.9 billion ($2,520 million) due to an increase in revenue at Sony Life. Revenue at Sony Life increased 8.2 per cent y-o-y to ? 279.1 billion ($2,307 million) due to an increase in insurance premium revenue reflecting an increase in policy amount in force, as well as an improvement in investment performance.

     

    Operating income increased ? 4.5 billion y-o-y to ? 50.9 billion ($420 million). This increase was mainly due to an increase in operating income at Sony Life. Operating income at Sony Life increased ? 2.9 billion y-o-y to ? 51.2 billion ($423 million) due to an improvement in investment performance in the general account.

     

    All other

     

    All other unit sales decreased 46.7 per cent y-o-y to ? 144.3 billion ($1,193 million). This decrease was due to a decrease in sales reflecting Sony’s exit from the PC business.

     

    Operating loss decreased ? 0.5 billion y-o-y to ? 14.3 billion ($118 million). Operating loss was essentially flat y-o-y due to a decrease in PC operating loss, partially offset by the deterioration of operating results in the disc manufacturing business.

     

  • Sony Corp’s quarterly report submission deadline extended

    Sony Corp’s quarterly report submission deadline extended

    MUMBAI: Sony Corporation’s application for an extension of the deadline to file its quarterly securities report for the third quarter ending 31 March, 2015 has been approved by the director-general of the Kanto Finance Bureau of Japan.

     

    The deadline has been extended from 16 February to 31 March.

     

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the company had filed for the extension of deadline on 23 January, 2015 owing to the cyber attack at its Hollywood film unit, which compromised “a large amount of data” in its systems. 

     

  • Sony Corp seeks to postpone earnings report over cyber attack

    Sony Corp seeks to postpone earnings report over cyber attack

    MUMBAI: Sony Corporation has asked the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan for permission to delay the release of its earnings next month after a cyber attack at its Hollywood film unit compromised “a large amount of data” in its systems. 

     

    The media giant has submitted an application for approval of extension of deadline to file the quarterly securities report for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending 31 March, 2015.

     

    In November 2014, Sony Corp’s motion picture business subsidiary Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc (SPE) identified a cyber attack on its network and IT infrastructure. As a result of the cyber attack, which has been now recognized as a highly sophisticated and damaging cyber attack, a serious disruption of SPE’s network systems occurred, including the destruction of network hardware and the compromise of a large amount of data on these systems. In response to this cyber attack, SPE shut down its entire network.

     

    Since that time, SPE has been working aggressively to restore these systems. However, most of SPE’s financial and accounting applications and many other critical information technology applications will not be functional until early February 2015 due to the amount of destruction and disruption that occurred, and the care necessary to avoid further damage by prematurely restarting functions. After the restoration of these applications, SPE will immediately commence the actions necessary to close its third quarter financial statements.

     

    However, the company said that even with the anticipated restoration of these applications in early February 2015, SPE will not have sufficient time to close its financial statements in time for submission of the quarterly securities report in the middle of February 2015. 

     

    “SPE must then enter transactional data for the two-month period the systems were offline and perform verification procedures over the restored data. For these reasons, Sony expects that it cannot complete its preparation, including the review by our independent accountants, of its consolidated financial statements for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending 31 March, 2015, by 16 February, 2015, the original deadline for submission of the quarterly securities report for this third quarter,” the company said.

     

    Accordingly Sony has filed an application with the FSA for approval to extend the deadline for submission of the report to 31 March, 2015. Considering the current status, Sony expects that it can complete its preparation of its financial statements as described above and submit the quarterly securities report for the third quarter by 31 March, 2015.

     

    Sony had planned to issue its earnings release and hold press/analyst conferences about the consolidated financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending 31 March, 2015 on 4 February, 2015. Although Sony expects that SPE will not complete its third-quarter closing processes by the said date, for the reasons described above, the company plans to issue a release and hold press/analyst conferences on that date so as to provide investors, shareholders, analysts, media and other stakeholders with updated forecasts of Sony’s consolidated financial results for the third quarter, to the extent reasonably possible, based on the information available on that date. While Sony continues to evaluate the impact of the cyber attack on its financial results, it currently believes that such impact is not material.

  • Sony interested in buying TV networks in India

    Sony interested in buying TV networks in India

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Entertainment is interested in buying additional TV networks in India, a report by Variety, a US-based source of entertainment news, said quoting Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton.

     

    Sony Pictures Entertainment’s India subsidiary Multi Screen Media currently owns 10 channels.

     

    The Variety report said Lynton emphasises that the company would be interested in buying additional TV networks in India or deploying capital in additional production companies outside of the US, but not in growing its film library through major acquisitions.

     

    Referring to Sony Corp’s investor conference late last year, the report said Lynton and Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal, had said at Sony Corp’s investor conference late last year, that the studio was going to pour more resources into its television business as it was cutting back on its movie production.

     

    What is more surprising is that Pascal had then said that she would be assuming oversight of the TV production division.

     

    The report quotes Sony Corp CEO Kazuo Hirai as saying that the company is not selling its entertainment business. “We’re looking at selling businesses on the electronics side that we don’t deem to be core,” Hirai says, adding, “We sold off our chemicals business and all this other stuff. … I’m not entertaining even the notion of selling our entertainment assets.”

     

    Variety noted that Sony Imageworks shuttered its branch in India after previously closing its New Mexico operation and is in the process of shifting jobs from Los Angeles to Vancouver. Scores of employees are being laid off in the process.

     

    Between 2007 and 2013, Sony invested $415 million in media networks and $960 million in cable and broadcast TV production. Those sectors accounted for 39 per cent, or $3.4 billion of Sony Pictures’ $8.8 billion revenue in 2013.

  • Spotify plans free mobile version of its service

    Spotify plans free mobile version of its service

    MUMBAI: Spotify AB is planning a free, ad-supported version of its streaming-music service on mobile devices, according to reports doing rounds, after previously making mobile users pay a monthly fee.

    The Sweden-based music company has reached licensing deals with all three of the global music companies to use its recordings on the new service. Until now, a free version of Spotify was available only on desktop and laptop computers.

    Spotify, which has six million paying subscribers and 20 million active users world-wide, has negotiated with three major record companies – Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and Access Industries’ Warner Music Group – over the rates it will pay them to play songs on the free mobile service, and over how much direct control users have over what they listen to, reports claimed.

    The new ad-supported offering will allow nonpaying mobile users to play a limited number of songs on demand, but will mostly serve up music based on the user’s input, much like custom radio services such as Pandora Media.

    Spotify launched its own custom radio feature last year. Spotify’s premium service, which costs $10 a month, delivers unlimited, on-demand music from its 20 million-song catalog on any device. Until now, free users have been able to play music on demand, with ads, on their computers – but they can’t use the service from their mobile phones or tablets, unless they enter their credit-card information to sign up for the 30-day premium-service trial.

  • MEC wins Harman’s media duties for India

    MEC wins Harman’s media duties for India

     
    MUMBAI: GroupM‘s MEC has been awarded the India media duties of audio and infotainment solutions provider, Harman International.


    The Stamford, Connecticut-headquartered company, whose brands include Harman Kardon, JBL, AKG and Infinity, recently awarded its creative duties to Law & Kenneth, and roped in AR Rahman as the brand ambassador for JBL “Hear the truth’ campaign.


    MEC MD T Gangadhar said, “We are proud to be associated with HARMAN International, a legendary name in the world of sound. As HARMAN International, India’s Agency of Record, our mandate is to create communication solutions across platforms. We look forward to creating exciting engagement between HARMAN brands and audiophiles.”
     
     
    The US audio systems maker is also expected to establish its first manufacturing facility in India soon. The company supplies audio products for cars made by BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Daimler, Toyota, Fiat SpA and Ferrari.
     
     
    Harman competes with Bose, Yamaha, Panasonic Corp, Sony Corp and Denso Corp, and is looking for aggressive growth in India.
     

  • IBM study predicts 23 per cent rise in new media sales

    IBM study predicts 23 per cent rise in new media sales

    MUMBAI: The sales of media on the internet and cellphones are expected to rise 23 per cent over the next four years, according to a IBM study. The upsurge is largely driven by TV networks and film studios putting more of their content online.

    IBM researchers estimated new media sales to grow at nearly five times the rate of traditional media. The biggest surge, they claim will come from the internet syndication of professionally produced programming, which is expected to jump 33 per cent to $25 billion.

    The research cites examples of Walt Disney Co. offering episodes of hit prime-time shows “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” for free on ABC.com and Sony Corp. offering a Star Wars-themed multiplayer game on its Web site.

    The IBM report comes in the wake of Google Inc.’s stalled talks with U.S. television networks to provide TV show programming to online video service YouTube.

    Media companies like Viacom Inc. and General Electric’s NBC Universal are making their programming more widely available on the Internet, but have failed to land distribution deals with YouTube over deal terms and copyright concerns.

    Viacom in early February demanded that YouTube remove more than 100,000 video clips from the service.

    Still, the internet syndication of traditional media companies’ programming will be a small part of the estimated $655 billion of annual media revenue in 2010.

    The IBM report estimated the music industry will have lost a staggering $85 billion to $160 billion in revenue between 1999 through 2010. It also concluded that the music industry will have to sort out the legal fights regarding use of digital media.

    “Doing nothing is not an option,” according to the report’s findings.The growth rates are on a compounded annual growth basis.”We’re not moving from black and white to color TV — from one steady state to another,” said IBM’s global media and entertainment strategy leader in an interview to the media last week.”We’re moving from an era of stability to an era of constant change.”

    Growth rates are higher for new media businesses, but traditional media sales will still play the biggest role with estimated annual sales growth of 5 percent to $340 billion by 2010.

    So called “walled communities,” or networks such as cellphone and cable networks that offer viewer-created programming and revenue from cable and satellite subscriptions and advertising, will rise by 10 percent to $240 billion by 2010.

    ‘New platform aggregators’ such as YouTube and MySpace, are expected to rise by 16 percent to $50 billion.