{"id":459030,"date":"2026-03-05T14:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459030\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T14:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:26:08","slug":"whisper-exits-sony-stake-returns-to-private-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459030\/","title":{"rendered":"Whisper Exits Sony Stake & Returns To Private Ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Brady & The Blues producer Whisper<\/a> has exited its Sony<\/a> Pictures Television (SPT) stake after five years and returned to private ownership.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sports<\/a> and entertainment producer, which was founded 15 years ago by Sunil Patel, broadcaster\u00a0Jake Humphrey\u00a0and Formula 1 driver\u00a0David Coulthard, has spent the past year seeking new ownership or minority investment. In the end, it has opted for \u201cusing external finance to deliver a bold and ambitious strategy, create an employee equity scheme, and allow the management team \u2013 led by CEO and founder,\u00a0Sunil\u00a0Patel \u2013 to drive new growth and market expansion,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\n\tSPT has exited the 30% stake it took in 2020 after five years during which time Whisper said its revenue has grown almost 500%. The company\u2019s revenue rose nearly 20% to \u00a392.3M ($123.4M) last year, while profit almost doubled to \u00a35.5M. <\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing a year-long analysis of the market, advised by KPMG, Whisper said the decision to return to private finance had been made in consultation with shareholders. Barclays is providing finance, we understand. The company, which makes the likes of Amazon doc Brady & The Blues, Turbulence: The Greatest Mind in Formula One with Artists Equity and gameshow Wheel of Fortune, along with producing coverage of the NFL, recently opened a U.S. hub. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tPatel said: \u201cFive years ago, Whisper set off on a journey to become a multi-genre production company. That has been absolutely delivered \u2013 creatively, commercially and culturally \u2013 with revenue up nearly 500%.\u00a0It would not have been possible without our bold vision and partnership with Sony, which helped elevate Whisper to a truly global force, so huge thanks to Wayne and the wider Sony team. The next chapter of Whisper\u2019s story is already underway, and that will continue to place our people at the heart by ensuring they share in future growth alongside shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhisper used to have minority invesment from UK pubcaster Channel 4, which then\u00a0switched to <\/a>SPT. Buyers in the frame for Whisper had included RedBird Capital. Patel recently told us an outright sale would have given Whisper \u201ccapital to deploy\u201d for the first time. \u201cEverything we have done so far, we\u2019ve put the money back into the business,\u201d he said several weeks back.<\/p>\n

\n\tSPT international boss Wayne Garvie said Whisper has \u201cover the last decade become one of the leading global production companies in their field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Brady & The Blues producer Whisper has exited its Sony Pictures Television (SPT) stake after five years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,622,80259,101,391,56,54,55,165179],"class_list":["post-459030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-sony","tag-sony-pictures-television","tag-sports","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-whisper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}