Joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment will offer actors, musicians, sportspersons, gamers & content creators in India opportunities for co-ventures, metaverse solutions, brand partnerships and management
Former CEO of Fox Star Studios India, Vijay Singh, named new CEO
Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today the creation of ‘Sony Entertainment Talent Ventures India’ (SETVI), a new entertainment company focused on creating ventures for media talent in India.
In the first official cross-corporation joint venture for Sony Group in India, SETVI combines the expertise and global reach of both companies, leveraging the vast pool of commercial talent and star-power in India to build investment opportunities, partnerships, metaverse solutions and more for talent. India is on track to become the third largest consumer market by 2030 and sustains one of the largest local-language content creation ecosystems in the world.
Sony Group has immense depth and reach across diverse sectors. Sony Music Entertainment is India’s leading record company, with a significant presence spanning Bollywood, Tamil OST, and multiple genres including national and regional pop. Sony Pictures Entertainment includes Sony Pictures Networks, a broadcast division with over 700 million viewers from 170 million households in 8,000 cities across India; Sony Pictures International Productions, a film production studio; and Sony LIV, a growing digital streaming and OTT business.
Talent represented by SETVI will also benefit from potential partnerships and global opportunities across the wider Sony Group, such as Sony PlayStation and Sony Electronics.
“SETVI will leverage our expertise, deep local relationships and global reach to give talent the potential to scale, become household brands and fully realize their creative and commercial potential,” added Shridhar Subramaniam, President of Corporate Strategy and Market Development in Asia and Middle East, Sony Music Entertainment. “The digital revolution and India’s unique start-up culture bring huge opportunities and SETVI’s role will be to partner with talent to build and serve their fans in exciting new ways.”
“Sony Group’s ecosystem in India offers far-reaching and unique opportunities for talent to build their brands in an authentic way,” said Sanford Panitch, President, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group.
Shridhar Subramaniam, Sanford Panitch, and N.P. Singh (Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sony Pictures Networks India) comprise SETVI’s board of directors, and Vijay Singh will lead the new company as CEO.
Singh joins having been CEO at Fox Star Studios for over a decade from 2010 to 2020. Prior to this, Singh was Managing Director of Developing Markets at the Tetley Group in London, and also brings music industry experience to the role, having previously led Sony Music Entertainment India as Managing Director from 1996 to 2002.
“Our ambition is to work as advisors to talent to build their wealth and legacy and unlock the best monetization opportunities for them in India and the world.” said VijaySingh. “It’s exciting to be spearheading this new venture and I look forward to working with talent to fulfil their ambitions in the coming years.”