Sony Pictures Television and Manchester City owner, City Football Group, have signed a “strategic collaboration” that will see CFG and SPT co-developing and co-producing new scripted and nonfiction series related to City Football Group, as well as football-themed productions.

Projects developed as part of the collaboration will include stories related directly to CFG and its clubs and players, as well as the creation of projects inspired by football, or where football is the central theme or plotline. As well as scripted and unscripted series, projects can also include one-off documentaries, animated projects, or children’s programming.

CFG clubs include Manchester City FC, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, Yokohama F. Marinos, Montevideo City Torque, Girona FC, Shenzhen Peng City FC, Mumbai City FC, Lommel SK, ESTAC, Palermo FC, Bahia, and partner club Bolívar.

SPT’s global production footprint includes the U.S. scripted studio; the SPT Nonfiction and SPT Kids television divisions; and the SPT International Production group, which spans scripted companies across the UK, Latin America, and Australia, including Left Bank Pictures, Bad Wolf, Eleven, and Eleventh Hour Films. SPT also has an investment in sports and unscripted indie, Whisper.

Manchester City was the first football club to feature on Amazon’s All or Nothing doc series in 2018, and the first Premier League football club to produce an in-house documentary and conclude a distribution deal with Netflix earlier this year, with Together: Treble Winners.

Commenting on the launch of the strategic collaboration, City Football Group Chief Executive Officer, Ferran Soriano, said:  “We are incredibly excited to be collaborating with Sony Pictures Television in this joint initiative.

 “City Football Group is already a global entertainment company, and this initiative builds on our long-standing track record of innovation in the content space and the growth of City Studios in the last years. We will now take an even more dynamic approach to content production, and we are already developing several scripted and nonfiction series that will delight audiences globally.

“Bringing together the expertise of both CFG and SPT will enable us to create brilliant shows and remain at the forefront of football-led content production”.

Wayne Garvie, President, International Production, Sony Pictures Television, says: “Football is the great global game, no other sport produces so many heroes, tears and laughter, joy and heartbreak as football. The basics are always the same: 22 players, two goals, one ball, but the game always evolves and over the last decade City Football Group have become an unprecedented innovator and global leader.

“Our aim is to be part of the next evolution of the game, creating a new generation of innovative football-based entertainment to thrill the world.”

Projects co-developed by CFG and SPT will be led by executive Ged Doherty supported by a bespoke team, who will work with wider teams across both organisations’ global networks to deliver the projects.

Jon Creamer

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