Sonar Raises $121 Million in Production Financing

Sonar Entertainment has secured a new production finance facility of $121 million led by MidCap Financial.

The new facility doubles the capital available to partner with talent in content development. Currently, the company has 17 series either on air or in various stages of production, including a number of season renewals. It has 21 series set up at networks and platforms, as well as 40-plus projects in the pipeline.

Season three of Mr. Mercedes starts production in early 2019. Production has wrapped on season two of The Son, slated for early 2019 on AMC. Next year will see production begin on a second season of Taboo, and a second season has been ordered for the international co-pro Das Boot.

“Sonar has continued to build its position as the leading independent TV studio through new series successes and expansion into kids and family and non-scripted programming,” said Tom Lesinski, CEO of Sonar Entertainment. “Having significant and flexible production financing is core to our ability to meet the needs of our talented partners and create even more opportunities in bringing premium programming to the market. This is particularly important as networks and digital platforms continue to focus on high-end original programming as the most significant driver of ratings, subscriber growth, and audience retention.”

“The acceleration of growth at Sonar over the last two years has been substantial and is testament to its capacity to deliver significant investment in the development and packaging of content, without relying on third parties, which leads to more control of creative and higher frequency of series orders,” said Gabriel de Alba, chairman of Sonar Entertainment and managing director and partner at The Catalyst Capital Group. “We are very excited about the future, marked by a production slate that continues to build with various series reordered, new series slated to premiere and new series greenlit and pilots ordered.”