BVS Entertainment, Inc. (Buena Vista Studios) is the current legal name for the company formerly known as Saban Entertainment, Inc. as well as Saban International and is the current copyright holder for the ex-Saban and Fox Kids properties Disney currently owns.
History[]
BVS Entertainment was originally founded as Saban Entertainment in 1980. By the 1990s, the company had produced many programmes ranging from western animation to dubbed Anime, alongside its biggest property Power Rangers. In 1996, Saban and News Corporation formed a joint-venture to control their children's assets, known as Fox Kids Worldwide and later renamed Fox Family Worldwide after the purchase of International Family Entertainment in 1997.
Saban and News Corporation's joint-venture company Fox Family Worldwide was suffering from major losses due to the struggling nature of the Fox Family Channel. Saban Entertainment tried to force News Corp. to sell its stake in Fox Family Worldwide, but both companies were unsure of what the valuation was. The two companies had no choice but to sell the joint-venture off to a third party.
On July 23, 2001, it was announced that Saban Entertainment's assets would be part of Disney's purchase of Fox Family Worldwide. The sale was completed by October 24, 2001, and so along with the rebranding of Fox Family Worldwide to ABC Family Worldwide, Saban Entertainment would be renamed to BVS Entertainment, Inc. and its headquarters was moved to Disney's main offices in Burbank, California. 2 other subsidiaries - Saban International, N.V. and Saban International Services, Inc. were renamed to BVS International, N.V. and BVS International Services, Inc. Saban International Paris however, split away from BVS after the purchase and became an independent animation studio, although Disney would later purchased a minority stake in the studio a year later, and would eventually rename as SIP Animation.
During this era, Saban's main two programmes: Power Rangers and Digimon remained in production. All seasons of Power Rangers from then forward would be copyrighted to BVS Entertainment, while Digimon's English dubbing moved to a new subsidiary called Sensation Animation.
As Power Rangers continued on, Disney were getting tired of producing new additions of the franchise and had admitted that they were even embarrassed to produce the series outright. Disney wanted to cancel the series outright after Jungle Fury, but due to obligations with Bandai and Jetix Europe, Disney were forced to produce one more season (RPM) with funding from the other two companies and then end production on the franchise.
On May 12, 2010, Haim Saban purchased back the Power Rangers franchise from Disney for $43 million, in which the franchise's ownership would transition to the Saban Capital Group, under their new Saban Brands subsidiary. Saban's other Power Rangers-esque shows - VR Troopers, Masked Rider, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, and Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog also transitioned from BVS to Saban Brands. In October 2012, Saban Brands repurchased the English rights to the Digimon franchise.
As of 2020, BVS Entertainment remained as a dormant holder for the remaining Saban Entertainment shows that Disney currently owns, as well as all-original titles from Fox Children’s Productions.
Currently, many of the DFE Films/Marvel Productions and Marvel Films Animation/New World Animation titles, such as Spider-Man (except the original 1967 series), The Incredible Hulk (except for the original 1966 short subject TV series and the new Marvel Productions-produced 1982 series), and Fantastic Four (except for the 1967 Hanna-Barbera animated series and new 1978 animated series) are available on the Disney+ streaming service, and were launch titles. However, the rest of the BVS library is not on the service and is yet to be added in the near future.
Current Properties owned by Disney through BVS[]
- Most of the ex-Saban Entertainment library, excluding co-productions
- SIP Animation shows produced as Saban International Paris, excluding CinéGroupe co-Productions
- Most of the ex-Créativité & Développement library (Excluding co-productions, and including some DIC programmes exclusively produced in France.)
- Most of the ex-Fox Kids/Fox Children's Productions library (Excluding co-productions)
- The all-original DePatie-Freleng Enterprises/Marvel Productions and New World Animation libraries (Also including RoboCop: The Animated Series, a licensed Show).
Properties that are no longer owned by Disney or have moved to other Disney units[]
- Power Rangers (Mighty Morphin to RPM) - Sold back to Haim Saban in 2010, and now owned by Hasbro through Allspark Studios in 2018 & Entertainment One in 2021.
- Other PR-related shows - VR Troopers, Masked Rider, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation and Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog
- Digimon (From Digimon Adventure to Data Squad) - English rights sold back to Haim Saban in 2012, and now reverted back to Toei Animation Co., Ltd. in 2018
- Most of the Anime licenses dubbed by Saban (Noozles, The Littl' Bits, Saban's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Saban's The Adventures of Peter Pan, Saban's The Adventures of Pinocchio, Flint the Time Detective) - Rights reverted back to their original owners throughout the years
- Bobby's World - Sold to Howie Mandel in 2004, distribution currently handled through Splash Entertainment
- International rights to the Pre-1990 DIC Entertainment Library - Purchased back by DIC Entertainment in early 2006
- CinéGroupe co-productions - Rights reverted back to CinéGroupe in the late-2000s-early 2010s
- The Marvel Comics-based DePatie-Freleng Enterprises/Marvel Productions and Marvel Films Animation/New World Animation libraries - Ownership moved to Marvel Animation after Disney's purchase of Marvel Entertainment in 2009.