Sony Corp. said it won’t sell its struggling movie and TV business after a string of Hollywood flops including last year’s “Ghostbusters” helped fuel a a $1 billion writedown.

Instead, Toyko execs said they aim to turn it around by adding sales channels and making more use of movie characters.

“We believe in long-term upside potential for [Sony] Pictures,” Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida said at a Thursday earnings briefing.

Sony continues to regard the film business, which includes movies and TV, as crucial to the Japan-based conglomerate, Yoshida said. He also sought to quash speculation that Sony might sell a minority stake in the unit.

Last month, The Post reported that Sony CEO Kaz Hirai was listening to pitches from banks about a potential sale of the film and TV operations.

Insiders noted that Hirai—who has repeatedly denied any interest in selling the film and TV divisions—hasn’t appointed a successor to Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, whose resignation was announced last month.

Now, Hirai is currently taking on a larger role in pictures, notably at Sony Entertainment where he is seeking a successor to Lynton, Reuters reported Thursday.

The pictures writedown, brought about by a shrinking market for DVDs and blu-ray discs, prompted Sony to cut 11 percent off the group’s full-year operating profit outlook.

The pictures division, which also includes media networks and television programs, underpinned Sony’s earnings while its core consumer electronics business struggled against low-cost Asian rivals.

Such was the profitability of pictures that activist shareholder Daniel Loeb urged Sony in 2013 to partially spin off the division so it could pump cash into reviving the electronics business.

Sony did sell some pictures assets, and the electronics business has since returned to profit. Its movie studio, however, now trails rivals in box office share and hit films.

Citing the sale of rights to Spider-Man merchandise and a Latin American TV channel in fiscal 2011, a number of short-term measures at the cost of long-term profit and cash flow reduced pictures’ profitability, Yoshida said.

That business, which currently accounts for some 10 percent of Sony’s overall sales, can recover through expansion in growing markets such as China as well as by bolstering sales of merchandise after films are released, Yoshida said.

With Reuters

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