Monday 18th February 2013 by Ashley Clements | Photos by WENN.com

Tags: X Factor

Sony Music's UK chairman and CEO Nick Gatfield has revealed that the label have been relying on The X Factor too heavily in recent years.

The boss also admitted that having such a successful show has meant artists outside of The X Factor have suffered as the label haven't put enough time into developing them.

Gatfield told CBI: "My mandate from my boss was, 'We've got to turn the UK back into a domestic repertoire powerhouse.'

"It had lost its way in terms of domestic A&R. We also needed to become a strong exporter of talent and fuel the Sony machine globally with British talent."

Sony's joint venture with Simon Cowell's Syco has helped launch the careers of One Direction, Cher Lloyd, Olly Murs and Leona Lewis.

However, Gatfield believes a 'year of restructuring' in 2012 has helped the company to focus on new artists.

He said, "We have a whole range of new artists coming to market between now and March 2014."

One Direction have seen huge success with Sony and Syco

Gatfield continued, "We have the most nominated artists in the critics' end-of-year polls for breakthrough success, while Tom Odell won the Brits 'Critics' Choice' award.

"You can't take any 
of that to the bank yet, but experience tells me that a good number of our artists are on their way to significant sales."

Below: X Factor live: Rylan Clark, Christopher Maloney and more