Wong to head int'l production at Sony Pictures Television

Wong has been appointed president of international production for Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and president of international for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE).

The appointment comes than 18 months after Wong stepped down as chief executive of Lifetime Networks after the US cable broadcaster was taken over by A&E Television Networks.

In her SPT position, Wong will head the studio’s international TV production business, overseeing teams outside of the US as well as the 15 owned and joint venture international production companies around the world, reporting to SPT president Steve Mosko.

These include UK production company Gogglebox Entertainment, which makes Channel 5 game show Impossible?, forthcoming Channel 4 doc The Untold Tommy Cooper and forthcoming BBC2 game show Breakaway.

It also includes Victory Television, a joint venture production company set up this summer with ex-Sony Pictures exec Victoria Ashbourne that made a recent Will Young special for ITV in August and has more music one-offs in the pipeline, which is understood to include US pop star Beyonce.

Victory also produces Who Wants to be a Millionaire? specials for ITV1 and SPT also owns the format rights to Dragons’ Den, the business reality show that airs on BBC2.

Abrahams departure

SPT landed the rights to Millionaire after acquiring 2waytraffic in June 2008, which saw Kees Abrahams named president of international production.

He said: “Having spent three-and-a-half fantastic years inside SPT since 2waytraffic was sold to Sony Pictures, I am proudly leaving a healthy and vibrant international production business with a group of great companies and very talent people.

“I think it is now time for me to pursue some new commercial opportunities and I wish Sony well.”

Mosko said: “His entrepreneurial spirit has been instrumental to the growth of our television production business international and we thank him for all of his efforts.”

“Expand and grow”

As international president for SPE, Wong will act as the company’s commercial and governmental representative related to production abroad, reporting to SPE chief executive Michael Lynton and co-chairman Amy Pascal.

She will move to London in the near future and will be at the Mipcom market in Cannes next week with SPT.

“There has never been a better time to be globally focused and I look forward to collaborating with Sony’s strong creative team to build and produce great programming worldwide,” said Wong.

“I am excited to… expand and grow the company’s business around the world.”

Prior to her three-year tenure at Lifetime, Wong worked at US network ABC as executive vice president of alternative programming, specials and late night.

There she developed the US version of BBC format Strictly Come Dancing – re-titled Dancing With the Stars – as well as The Bachelor and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Mosko added: “Andrea’s business acumen and her role in developing successful unscripted programming like Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor make her a perfect fit for SPT.”