Press Releases

London, UK. 23 June 2011. Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and UK production executive Victoria Ashbourne today announced the launch of a new joint venture production company, Victory Television Limited. The new venture will be headed by Ashbourne, previously SVP Creative Development, International Production, at SPT, who takes up the role of Managing Director.

Based in London, Victory will focus on producing entertainment and factual entertainment programming for the UK market and already has several projects in development. Victory's first commission is a series of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? celebrity specials for ITV, to broadcast on ITV1 over the summer. The first will be a Schools Out special involving celebrities and their children, while the following two will be soap star specials.

SPT President International Production, Kees Abrahams, said, "This is an important step as we continue to build our presence in the UK market. Victoria is a highly accomplished producer and has been a very talented, creative force during her time at SPT, helping drive international development through our production network. We look forward to Victoria building a thriving business for UK entertainment programming."

Victory Managing Director Victoria Ashbourne, said, "SPT is a creative powerhouse in entertainment around the world and I couldn't wish for a better umbrella under which to launch this exciting new venture. Victory will carry on SPT's formidable success in producing high end, entertainment gameshows, such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, and create fresh new entertainment and factual entertainment formats for UK broadcasters and international markets."

Ashbourne has led high profile productions in the UK broadcasting landscape on well known brands, including executive producing Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, as well as redeveloping and relaunching Mr and Mrs, both for ITV. Previously, she oversaw the transition of the The Paul O'Grady Show from ITV to Channel 4, and produced V Graham Norton for Channel 4 and The Graham Norton Effect for US network Comedy Central.

Victory becomes the latest company in SPT's global production network and its properties will be distributed by SPT's 2waytraffic International. Other production companies in SPT's global network include Gogglebox (UK), Embassy Row (US), Floresta (Brazil), Teleset (Colombia), Huaso (China), Tuvalu (Netherlands), Starling (France), Lean-M (Russia) and Toro (Italy), as well as fully branded SPT production studios in the US, Germany, Russia, Latin America and France.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES TELEVISION
Sony Pictures Television is one of the television industry's leading content providers. It produces and distributes programming in every genre, including series, telefilms, theatrical releases and family entertainment around the world and for every platform: broadcast and cable television, first-run and off-network syndication and digital distribution. In addition to one of the industry's largest libraries of feature films and television shows, SPT boasts a current program slate that includes the top-rated daytime dramas and game shows, landmark off-network series, original animated series and critically acclaimed primetime dramas, comedies and telefilms.

Internationally, SPT is a leader in local language productions around the world, some of which are co-produced with local partners, and sells SPE-owned formats in approximately 70 countries. To better serve its clients and partners worldwide, SPT maintains offices throughout the world, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, the People's Republic of China, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Venezuela and the United Kingdom. SPT's worldwide television networks portfolio is a key strategy in SPE's long-range commitment to the global marketplace, with 132 channel feeds, which are available in more than 142 countries reaching more than 500 million households worldwide. SPT also creates original content for and manages SPE's premium video website, Crackle.

Additionally, SPT owns Dutch entertainment company 2waytraffic, production company Embassy Row and Sony Movie Channel, and is a part owner of cable channel GSN, new 3D channel 3net, FEARnet, the premier horror/thriller website and VOD service, and national media sales company ITN Networks, Inc. SPT advertiser sales is one of the premiere national advertising sales companies, handling the commercial inventory in SPT's syndicated series as well as in all of SPE's digital businesses in the United States. SPT (www.sonypicturestelevision.com) is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company.

For further information:
Mark Macdonald
Executive Director Corporate Communications
Sony Pictures Television
mark_macdonald@spe.sony.com
+44 20 7533 1363