BVS Entertainment
US television production company / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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BVS Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Saban Entertainment and Saban International) is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company and was an independent US-Israeli television production-distribution company serving worldwide; the company originally founded as a music production company under the Saban Productions name in 1980 by Haim Saban[1] and Shuki Levy. The company and its extensions are mostly known for producing and distributing children's programs for Fox Kids, Fox Family/ABC Family and Jetix.
 | This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience. (September 2019) |
| Formerly | Saban Productions, Inc. (1980–1989) Saban Entertainment, Inc. (1989–2001)[1][2][3] |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private (1980–2001) Subsidiary (currently) |
| Industry | Animation Filmmaking |
| Predecessor | Saban Entertainment |
| Founded | 1980; 44 years ago (1980) (as Saban Entertainment) 2001; 23 years ago (2001) (as BVS Entertainment)[4] |
| Founders | Haim Saban Shuki Levy |
| Defunct | 2001; 23 years ago (2001) (Saban Entertainment)[1][2][3] 2014; 10 years ago (2014) (dormancy) |
| Fate | Acquired by The Walt Disney Company, then went dormant[5] |
| Successors | Program library: Disney General Entertainment Content Power Rangers franchise: Hasbro Entertainment Digimon franchise: Toei Animation Inc. Music library: BMG Rights Management |
| Headquarters | 500 South Buena Vista Street Burbank Los Angeles, CA 251 Little Falls Drive Wilmington New Castle, DE, |
Number of locations | 2 |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Television programs Theatrical films |
| Owner | Haim Saban & News Corporation (1980–2001) The Walt Disney Company (2001–present) |
| Parent | Independent (1980–1996) Fox Family Worldwide (1996–2001) ABC Family Worldwide (2001–present)[6] |
| Divisions | Libra Pictures International/Libra Home Entertainment (1994–2001) |
| Subsidiaries | BVS International N.V. (1989–2016)[7] BVS International Services, Inc. (1986–2011)[8] [9] BVS International Programming A.V.V. (1994–2007)[10] SIP Animation (1991–2012, as minority stake owner, 2012–2023, as sole shareholder partner) Créativité et Développement (1996–1998) BVS Merchandising Inc. Ventura Film Distributors B.V. |
The company imported, dubbed, and adapted various Japanese series such as Maple Town, Noozles, Funky Fables, Samurai Pizza Cats, and the first three Digimon series to North American and international markets over syndication, including both animation and live-action shows. Saban also adapted various tokusatsu shows from Toei Company, including Power Rangers (based on the Super Sentai series), Big Bad Beetleborgs (based on Juukou B-Fighter), VR Troopers (featuring elements of Metal Hero series such as Space Sheriff Shaider, Jikuu Senshi Spielban, and Choujinki Metalder), and Masked Rider (an original interpretation using scenes from the Japanese Kamen Rider Black RX).
Saban has also distributed and provided music for television programs produced by outside companies such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Inspector Gadget and the first two dubbed seasons of Dragon Ball Z.
In the 1990s, Saban also operated a production division Libra Pictures, which produced programs targeted towards older audiences than Saban's usual kid-friendly output,[11] as well as a syndicated subsidiary Saban Domestic Distribution, whose primarily purpose was to distribute shows for first-run and off-net syndication.[12]
The early years
Saban Entertainment was formed on April 24, 1980 as Saban Productions, Inc., which was initially a music production company. In 1981, it formed a longtime relationship with DIC Audiovisuel and DIC Enterprises to create soundtracks for their programs; Saban also composed music for companies like Ruby-Spears Enterprises and Filmation.[13][14]
In 1984, Saban moved into production outright with its first ever television program Kidd Video, which was in co-production with DIC Enterprises, and it was picked up by NBC as part of their Saturday morning lineup.[15] The next project Saban produced was Macron 1, an English version of GoShogun featuring pop music, which was picked up for syndication by Orbis Communications for the fall of 1986.[16]
In 1986, Saban Productions bought the foreign rights to the DIC Enterprises library of children's programming from DIC's parent DIC Animation City and then sold the rights to Créativité et Développement shortly afterward, leading to DIC suing Saban for damages before reaching a settlement in 1991. In 1987, DIC expanded its relationship with Saban Productions to co-produce several shows, with Saban handling international distribution.[17] That year, both DIC and Saban Productions collaborated to provide series commitments to 26 episodes of I'm Telling! and 13 episodes of The New Archies for NBC.[18]
On June 10, 1987, Saban Productions expanded to live-action TV and theatrical features with plans for a television film on NBC, a hour-long late-night series for CBS, a first-run strip for syndication, and a theatrical feature film. Several pilots such as Love on Trial, Hidden Rage, Shocking But True were produced but never realized.[19]
In late October 1987, Saban Productions had obtained three independently produced projects as part of its first slate for the NATPE conference. The three strips included Love Court, a collaboration with television syndicator Orbis Communications; All-American Family Challenge, a game show taped at Six Flags; and Alphy's Hollywood Power Party, a teen celebrity dance show; the fourth project would be a network game show version of the board game Uno, which was set for NBC, and was to be produced by Peter Berlin and Rob Fiedler, who joined Saban shortly after Wordplay was cancelled.[20]
In 1988, Saban Productions and Washington-based newspaper columnist Jack Anderson agreed to produce four quarterly specials under the branding American Expose, with then-future Cops creator/producer John Langley and Malcolm Barbour serving as producers.[21] Orbis Communications, who already syndicated Saban's Macron 1, signed on to distribute the programs.[22] Newly created Saban International N.V, was to handle distribution of the same programs, as well as signing up for distribution of non-Saban television material.[23] Saban International N.V. would handle international sales of DiC programs such as Hey Vern, It's Ernest, until a lawsuit hit in 1990.[24]
By early 1989, Saban formed the Saban/Scherick Productions division for production done with Edgar Scherick, primarily miniseries and made-for-TV films.[25] Around this time, they also began distributing the film library of New World Pictures (which had been sold by New World to Trans-Atlantic Films, consisted of ex-New World employees) to television stations. As the company grew, additional executives were hired to push into new areas like prime time programming. Saban created a division, Saban International N.V., based in both the U.S. and the Netherlands, for the international distribution of its shows (not to be confused with the interchangeable "Saban International Paris" as they were two different entities). Saban hired Stan Golden from Horizon International TV to head their international distribution arm. Then in August 1989, Tom Palmieri came from MTM Enterprises to become Saban's president. On September 13, 1989, the company renamed itself Saban Entertainment, Inc.[26] CLT in Luxembourg had signed a deal with Saban to market TV shows.[27]
In 1990, Saban entered into a partnership with video game publisher Acclaim Entertainment and syndicator Bohbot Entertainment to develop the program Video Power.[28] Also that year, Saban started Saban Video, with distribution being handled by Video Treasures.[29] In 1991, Saban Entertainment struck a home video deal with Prism Entertainment that would allow Saban International the international distribution rights to select films.[30] By the following year of 1992, Saban signed a domestic distribution deal with Bohbot Communications to handle Around the World in 80 Dreams for syndication.[31]
Partnership with Marvel Entertainment Group
In 1992, Saban partnered with the Marvel Entertainment Group to produce an animated series based on Marvel's comic-book heroes the X-Men. Saban obtained the rights in a joint partnership with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and the Fox Kids Network, becoming Saban's first hit program and the company's first breakthrough, teaming up with another company.[32] The series ran until 1997. On August 28, 1993, Saban brought another hit to the Fox Kids lineup, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, an adaptation of the Japanese Super Sentai franchise. In 1994 alone, licensed Power Rangers merchandise made Saban over a billion dollars in profits.[33] At distinct times in the 1980s, both Loesch and Saban had attempted adaptations of these shows, but had found themselves repeatedly rejected by other networks.[34][35][36]
New World Animation (The Incredible Hulk), Saban (X-Men), and Marvel Films Animation (Spider-Man) each produced a Marvel series for television.[37] Later on in 1992, Saban formed a syndication subsidiary, Saban Domestic Distribution.[12] The $50 million development slate was unveiled, and David Goodman, formerly of Goodman Entertainment Group was served as senior vice president of the company.[38] Later in 1994, Saban signed a deal with A*Vision Entertainment to distribute cassettes under the Saban Home Entertainment and Libra Home Entertainment banners.[39]
In 1994, Saban Entertainment launched Libra Pictures in an effort to gear films for older audiences, while the Saban name was used for kid-friendly material, in a similar manner what The Walt Disney Studios and Touchstone Pictures would have to offer.[11] In December, Saban launched a partnership/joint venture with UPN to establish the UPN Kids block.[40] The block would eventually premiere on September 10, 1995 with Space Strikers and Teknoman.[41] In 1995, the Saban Interactive unit was established to produce CD-ROM software based on the Power Rangers franchise.[42]
On October 17, 1995, Libra Pictures president Lance Robbins was made Saban's president of motion pictures and television.[43] On November 3, 1995, Saban Entertainment and the Fox Broadcasting Company entered into a partnership that the two companies would create children's programing channels and services, develop and distribute programing and build licensing and merchandising opportunities on a global basis, and helped to expand its programming immediately.[44]
Saban under Fox Family Worldwide
In July 1996, Fox Kids Network secured rights from Marvel Entertainment Group for Captain America, Daredevil and Silver Surfer and additional characters to be developed into four series and 52 episodes over seven years.[45] In the same month, Saban formed a new division, Saban Enterprises International, to handle international licensing, merchandising and promotional activities under president Michael Welter. Oliver Spiner, senior vice president of Saban International, took over operational duties previously handled by Welter. Eric S. Rollman was promoted from senior vice president production to executive vice president of Saban Animation.[46]
Also in 1996, Fox Kids Network merged with Saban Entertainment to form Fox Kids Worldwide, which included the Marvel Productions and Marvel Films Animation library.[47][48][49] Also that year, Saban debuted its first FCC-friendly series The Why Why Family.[50] Shortly afterwards, Saban terminated its deal with WarnerVision, and decided that they would move itself to Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.[51] In 1997, the company produced a revival of Captain Kangaroo for the Saban Kids Network.[52] In 1998, its syndication unit Saban Domestic Distribution announced that they would refocus on develop films for syndication outside of the Twentieth Century Fox and Saban stations.[53]
Marvel was developing a Captain America animated series with Saban Entertainment for Fox Kids to premiere in Fall 1998.[54] However, due to Marvel's bankruptcy, the series was canceled before the premiere.[55] Both Marvel and Saban would become parts of The Walt Disney Company; Saban (renamed BVS Entertainment) in 2002 and Marvel by the end of 2009.
Sale to The Walt Disney Company
On July 23, 2001, it was announced that the group would be sold to The Walt Disney Company as part of the sale of Fox Family Worldwide/Fox Kids Worldwide (now ABC Family Worldwide) by Haim Saban and News Corporation,[56] and on October 24, 2001, the sale was completed[1][2] with Saban Entertainment, Inc. rebranding as BVS (Buena Vista Studios) Entertainment, Inc.[3] The final program fully produced and distributed by Saban Entertainment and Saban International N.V. was Power Rangers Time Force, which ran throughout 2001, however, Power Rangers Wild Force was the final series created and pre-produced by Saban as MMPR Productions, the producer of the Power Rangers series from 1993 to 2001.
Following Disney's acquisition of Saban, it's subsidiaries were also rebranded, with Saban International N.V. becoming BVS International N.V. and Saban International Services, Inc. becoming BVS International Services, Inc. Saban's 49.6% stake of Saban International Paris was purchased along with Fox Family Worldwide after Saban stepped down from the studio and the studio was rebranded as "SIP Animation" in October 2002, as the studio was not allowed to use the "Saban" brand after its take-over.
Saban's distribution branch was folded into Buena Vista Television on May 1, 2002.[57] A week prior, Fox Kids Europe announced that Buena Vista International Television would take over distribution services of Saban's children's library from Saban International on the same day. The strategy remained the same with Fox Kids Europe continuing to handle all television rights in Europe and the Middle East with Buena Vista handling servicing, while Saban content not under FKE would be handled exclusively by Buena Vista for all territories including rights outside of Europe and the Middle East.[58]
Saban's European licensing subsidiary based in the United Kingdom, Saban Consumer Products Europe, which had been integrated within Fox Kids Europe since the end of 2000,[59] was renamed as Active Licensing Europe on April 13, 2003,[60] and eventually Jetix Consumer Products on May 4, 2004.[61]
Legacy
Prior to the sale, Disney was only involved with one title produced by Saban Entertainment and its extensions. Susie Q, commissioned by Disney on behalf of Super RTL and Disney Channel, was produced by Saban's adult unit, Libra Pictures, and was released in 1996 as a Disney Channel Premiere Film. Disney would gain the Susie Q copyrights following it's purchase of Saban in 2001.[62] Including the shows produced after the sale, Susie Q is the only BVS Entertainment property which contains Disney logos and images on promotional and distributional materials and to be directly Disney-branded among the other BVS Entertainment properties.
Following the completion of the sale, Disney shut down Saban Entertainment's animation unit, but animation production continued at SIP Animation, a subsidiary of BVS Entertainment, in which it held a minority stake at the time. In this period, all shows produced and owned by BVS Entertainment (which did not receive its own logo) and SIP Animation were distributed by Buena Vista International Television and ended with their logos.[63][64][65][66]
The portion of Saban that handled ADR production and post-production services for anime's English-language dubbing was renamed by ABC Family Worldwide as "Sensation Animation" on September 9, 2002;[67] and remained as such so Disney could continue dubbing Digimon (the second half of Digimon Tamers and Digimon Frontier) episodes. Once production ended in July 2003, Sensation Animation was closed and folded into Walt Disney Television Animation. Disney would later go on to dub the four remainder Digimon films, Revenge of Diaboromon (DA02), Battle of Adventurers (DT), Runaway Locomon (DT) and Island of the Lost Digimon (DF) in 2005 and the fifth TV season, Digimon Data Squad in 2007, but this time, the dubbing was handled by post-production studio Studiopolis. The majority of the past voice actors returned with a lack of some voice actors such as Joshua Seth.
ABC Family produced a third film in Saban's Au Pair film series, Au Pair 3: Adventure in Paradise, in 2009.[68] Haim Saban's stepdaughter Heidi Saban was again in the leading role like the first two films in the franchise, but unlike the first two films, Haim Saban's wife and Heidi's mother, Cheryl Saban, was not on the writing staff this time. Following Au Pair 3, Disney did not produce any more new projects based on pre-existing BVS Entertainment properties until X-Men '97 in 2024.
Disney served very little other than to hold copyrights for existing Saban properties. The company only existed legally after its last production, Power Rangers RPM, in 2009. Disney took little action other than merging the company's subsidiaries, such as Teen Dream Productions, Interprod Inc., Laurel Way Productions, and SIP Animation into BVS Entertainment.[69][70][71] Most BVS Entertainment properties have been vaulted by Disney since the late 2000s due to low consumer demand.
After BVS Entertainment continued production of the Power Rangers franchise throughout the 2000s, Haim Saban founded Saban Capital Group and Saban Brands in 2010 and bought back Power Rangers and related properties from Disney. Saban Brands produced programs such as Power Rangers seasons starting with Power Rangers Samurai and Glitter Force.[72] Saban Brands was sold to Hasbro in 2018.
SIP Animation (formerly known as Saban International Paris), was a semi-independent and later wholly owned subsidiary and television production studio of BVS Entertainment, based in France. That operated from 1977 until the year of 2009. Saban International Paris was founded in France by Haim Saban and Jacqueline Tordjman in 1977 as a record label. In 1989, Saban International Paris moved into the animation field.[73] In November 1991, Saban International Paris became a separately-operated facility after its shares were divided in thirds.[74] with Saban Entertainment holding a 49.8% share[75] (later reduced to 49.6%).[76][77] In 1996 DIC's co founder Jean Chalopin's rival studio Créativité et Développement was merged and absorbed into the studio.[78] In 2001, Disney inherited Saban's 49.6% stake in Saban International Paris as part of its purchase of Fox Family Worldwide.[79][80][81] The studio was renamed as SIP Animation in October 2002,[81][82][83] and continued producing shows with this respective name[84][85][86] until going dormant in 2009. Disney purchased full ownership in the studio through BVS Entertainment in 2012[87][88] and it was fully closed [89] in October 2023. Following the formal dissolution of the studio, all remaining assets owned by SIP[90] became the property of its parent company BVS Entertainment.[71] Although the studio was a separately operated multi-shareholder unit between 1991 and 2012, BVS International N.V. owned the rights to "SIP Animation" respective name, brand, logo and trademark between 2002 and 2012.[91]
Most Saban Entertainment-owned media from the early 1990s made their way to VHS in most regions. However, from the late 1990s on, almost all Saban Entertainment-owned entities were only released as Australian and New Zealand Region 4 VHSes. And also, according to current North American rights holders, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment had (and still has) no plans to release these titles to DVD and Blu-ray, and as such, some of them instead aired on their sibling television channel, Disney XD and originally was on Toon Disney and ABC Family until the retirement of the Jetix branding in the U.S. In most European countries, Fox Kids Europe (later as "Jetix Europe") had a sister channel called Fox Kids Play (later as "Jetix Play") which aired various Saban Entertainment programs and shows owned by Fox Kids Europe/Jetix Europe. Some shows were also released on DVD and VHS by various independent distributors, such as Maximum Entertainment in the United Kingdom. Many Marvel-related series distributed by Saban and some of their live-action films such as Richie Rich's Christmas Wish and Three Days are available on the Disney+ streaming service, while The Tick is available on Hulu, and Prime Video has Sweet Valley High[92] and A.T.O.M.[93] available only in the United States.
On March 13, 2012, Shout! Factory announced a home video distribution deal with Saban Brands, which includes VR Troopers, the first two seasons of Big Bad Beetleborgs and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. The first 17 seasons of Power Rangers have been licensed for DVD releases by Shout! Factory, which has released the first 17 seasons to DVD in Region 1.[94] In Germany, they have released complete-season boxsets to every Power Rangers series, along with the English versions included up until season 6 due to problems with Disney.
In Australia, Digimon: Digital Monsters' first and second seasons were re-released by Madman Entertainment on August 17, 2011.[95][96] In addition, the first five series was released on DVD in North America through New Video.
Program library
In 1996, the company had a library of more than 3,700 half-hours of children's programming, making it one of the largest in the world.[97] By the time they were sold to Disney in 2001, their library had increased to over 6,500 half-hours of children's programing.[98]
With a few exceptions, the BVS Entertainment library is currently owned by The Walt Disney Company
Music library
Saban's music library consisted of roughly 3,800 songs, themes and musical underscores, with this number taking into account music that Shuki Levy and Haim Saban produced together in the 1980s, prior to officially forming Saban Entertainment.[99][100] Nearly all of these compositions are listed on legal cue sheets as being written by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban, with these two also appearing in television credits as the composers for most Saban-related productions.[99] Starting in the 1990s, Haim Saban started using the pseudonym "Kussa Mahchi" for his musical credits, with spellings varying (for example, on Dragon Ball Z's credits it was spelt "Kussa Mahehi"). For shows produced by Saban International Paris, he used the pseudonym "Michel Dax" beginning in the mid-1990s. Princess Tenko is an exception as it was not produced by SIP, although Haim Saban still composed the musics for the show under this pseudonym. "Michel Dax" is listed in television credits as the sole composer on all programs where this pseudonym is used, although Shuki Levy is still credited as being a co-writer on the cue sheets.[101][102][103]
A 1998 investigation by The Hollywood Reporter alleged that during the 1990s, many compositions credited to Levy and Saban were being ghostwritten by a salaried staff who did not receive royalties. This practice was legal since the musicians signed a contract agreeing to give up the rights to their compositions prior to joining.[99] Films produced by Saban Entertainment usually had to give proper credit to these ghostwriters, presumably since they were union productions.[99] Levy and Saban aren't included as composers in the credit sequences of films where the ghostwriters had to be acknowledged, however, they are still present on the cue sheets for most of these films.[104][105] Compositions which are believed to have been created by ghostwriters, including Ron Wasserman's theme for X-Men: The Animated Series, remain credited to Shuki Levy and Haim Saban whenever they are licensed to appear in other media, such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (which used the X-Men theme).[106]
Some of this music library is believed to have gotten misplaced when Disney purchased Saban in 2001.[107] In 2010, it was sold to independent Los Angeles label Bug Music, who in turn sold it to BMG in 2011.[108]