Sony Pictures Television, Inc. (SPT) is an American television production and distribution company. It is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.
SPT was previously known as Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures Television, TriStar Television and Columbia TriStar Television. The name was changed to reflect the Sony brand in 2002.
The company also owns and distributes the shows from Tandem Productions, ELP Communications (from TAT to ELP Communications), TeleVentures, Merv Griffin Enterprises, Chuck Barris Productions, Barry & Enright Productions and Bob Stewart Productions.
From 2005 until May 31 2006, SPT also distributed MGM's TV shows (including The Pink Panther and All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series) and movie library. In 2006, SPT joined forces with Program Partners to handle ad-sales and distribution rights to foreign television series in the U.S., mostly shows produced in Canada. In Summer 2007, the company introduced The Minisode Network; a digital channel for MySpace airing shows from the 1960s to early 2000s from four to five minutes. In Winter 2007, The Minisode Network was also added to a few more sites like AOL TV and their Crackle site.
