Steve Tsoneff is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Century City office. He has two decades of experience advising content producers, distributors, and financiers in a variety of media and entertainment transactions, with a focus on the production, licensing, and distribution of audiovisual content and various approaches to the financing of such content, including single-project, slate, corporate, and co-financing transactions. He also provides industry expertise to clients who are acquiring, investing in, or selling companies in the media and entertainment space and advises clients on media rights issues for sports leagues and teams.
Mr. Tsoneff returned to Gibson Dunn after serving as General Counsel & Head of Business Affairs for the entertainment production company Madison Wells Media from 2017 through 2021, where he was a member of the core management team leading the company’s development, production, and financing activities across film, television, live stage, podcasting, and digital media. He currently practices in the firm’s Corporate Transactional Department and was previously Co-Chair of the firm’s Media, Entertainment and Technology Practice Group.
Prior to joining Madison Wells Media, Mr. Tsoneff was a partner at Gibson Dunn and practiced at the firm from 2000 to 2017.
Representative matters include:
- Representation of Universal Pictures in numerous transactions, including:
- Its partnership with Blumhouse Productions in a ten-year first-look production agreement;
- Its multi-year slate financing transaction with Perfect World Pictures;
- Its multi-year distribution partnership with Amblin’ Entertainment;
- Its co-production and co-financing transaction with Legendary Entertainment;
- Its $150 million sale of Rogue Pictures to Relativity Media;
- Numerous single-picture financing and distribution transactions; and
- Various German, UK and Spanish tax-incentivized film finance transactions.
- Representation of RedBird Capital Partners in several transactions, including:
- Its acquisition of All3Media, the largest independent television production and distribution company in the UK;
- Its investment in the TV studio and production company Media Res; and
- Its formation of the Hidden Pigeon Company, Mo Willems’ multiplatform children’s content venture.
- Representation of Candle Media, a Blackstone-backed media company led by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, in several transactions including:
- Its acquisition of Spanish-language content producer Exile Content Studio;
- Its acquisition of socially progressive media company ATTN:; and
- Its sale of the Spanish-language music label Exile Music to HYBE.
- Representation of the National Football League in its joint venture with Skydance Media to form Skydance Sports, a premier global multi-sports production studio.
- Representation of the North Road Company, a global multi-genre film and TV studio founded by Peter Chernin, in its acquisition of the U.S. assets of Red Arrow Studios.
- Representation of Rachel Maddow in the formation of her production company and her first-look transactions in film and television.
- Representation of Lupa Systems in the formation of the production company Futurific Studios and its production and distribution of the PBS documentary series “A Brief History of the Future”.
- Representation of Point72 Ventures in various media and entertainment investments.
- Representation of TikTok in various advisory matters.
- Representation of LIV Golf in various media and entertainment transactions.
- Representation of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation in numerous transactions, including:
- Its multi-year film slate financing transactions with TSG Entertainment Finance LLC and Dune Capital Management;
- Its partnership with Cirque du Soleil to develop an arena-touring production based on “Avatar”;
- Its license arrangement with Ubisoft to develop an “Avatar” video game;
- Its partnership with Resorts World Genting to develop the world’s first Fox theme park, in Malaysia;
- Its multi-picture co-financing transaction with Ivanhoe Pictures for local-language films in India, Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan;
- Numerous studio co-financing transactions and single-picture financing and distribution transactions; and
- Various German, UK and Spanish tax-incentivized film finance transactions.
- Representation of Paramount Pictures in its co-production and co-financing transaction with Skydance Productions, as well as numerous single-picture financing and distribution transactions.
- Representation of DZ Bank AG in its financing of various motion pictures produced by Constantin Film;
- Representation of New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. in its $350 million slate financing transaction with The Royal Bank of Scotland and various German, UK and Spanish tax-incentivized film finance transactions.
- Representation of Illumination Entertainment in its strategic alliance with Fuji TV in Japan.
- Representation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in various co-financing transactions.
Mr. Tsoneff has received numerous industry accolades, including multiple appearances on The Hollywood Reporter’s Top 100 Power Lawyers list, and Variety’s Dealmakers Impact Report list and Legal Impact Report lists, as well as The Daily Journal. He was named by the Los Angeles Business Journal as a “Leader of Influence” and was previously ranked by Chambers USA as an “Up and Coming” California lawyer in the category of Media and Entertainment: Transactional.
Mr. Tsoneff received his law degree from Columbia Law School in 2000. While at Columbia, Mr. Tsoneff was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and spent a semester studying at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English & American Literature, cum laude, in 1997 from Harvard College, where he was a member of the heavyweight crew team.
Mr. Tsoneff is admitted to practice law in California.
Capabilities
Credentials
Education:
- Columbia University - 2000 Juris Doctor
- Harvard University - 1997 Bachelor of Arts
Admissions:
- California Bar