ER was looking for a Takeover?

[Eric B]

Just checked the news, and it seems we missed this one:
http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=23199

Entertainment Rights had planned some talks for a tokeover of the company, but they now have been cancelled. :crying:

I had always wished Time Warner would buy them out, so all the Filmation stuff (plus a few others) would then be available to Boomerang, which would then get a whole new "lease" on the retro format, instead of all this newer stuff. (though I don't get Boomerang anymore). (Also, did they get the Muppets from Hallmark too?) So it was nice to know that they were actually putting themselves up for sale. Now let's just hope it resumes, and that Time Warner becomes interested.

[ZumbidoMetal]

Hallmark never owned the Muppets, The Jim Henson Company just had a small ownership in what is now The Hallmark Channel. Disney now owns most of the Muppet characters and series with exception of Sesame Street (owned by Sesame Workshop), Fraggle Rock (owned by The Jim Henson Company) and maybe a few others.

[Mandouga]

Another thing. Would you really want Time Warner to buy them out for a spur-of-the-moment reason like that?

In any event, I'm actually glad they're (ER) remaining independent. Besides which, don't forget that ER owns Classic Media. If Time Warner had bought them out, it would probably be a monopoly or something...

[Jeff Harris]

I had always wished Time Warner would buy (Entertainment Rights) out, so all the Filmation stuff (plus a few others) would then be available to Boomerang, which would then get a ahole new "lease" on the retro format, instead of all this newer stuff. So it was nice to know that they were actually putting themselves up for sale. Now let's just hope it resumes, and that Time Warner becomes interested.You know, I actually don't want Time Warner to buy any entertainment properties anymore unless they learn how to use the entertainment properties they already own. Seriously, why isn't Looney Tunes on the air in the United States at all? Why isn't a large company like Time Warner using synergistic strategies to create a stronger marketplace and added value to the company's shrinking stock price? Why would they purposely bury The Powerpuff Girls, the most marketable property Cartoon Network has ever created (and the only one to attract boys AND girls)?

Ah, Time Warner, the MOST . . . you know.

Truth be told, the only company that logically flows with what Entertainment Rights is all about is NBC Universal, and that's who I'd prefer to acquire the company. Why?

Well, both NBC Universal and Entertainment Rights are already partners in several ventures. Entertainment Rights, through its Classic Media division, is a partner with NBC Uni on the qubo block and digital channel. Many of Entertainment Rights properties, including Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, and Casper, are already used by NBC Universal units. NBC Uni is also distributing ER's titles on video/DVD in the US and, in the case of VeggieTales movies, theatrically.

Plus, unlike Time Warner, NBC Universal is willing to expand and create new outlets and uses out of their properties. Globally, NBC Uni is a majority owner of the KidsCo children's entertainment network, which is coming everywhere except Canada and the US. They could also create an American-based equivalent to KidsCo (qubo isn't it, though two of the three KidsCo owners [NBC Uni and Corus Entertainment] are partners in that endeavor as well) utilizing ER's massive library of animation and children's programming, a unit NBC Universal is kind of lacking compared to their competitors.

Entertainment Rights could easily merge with the Universal Animation unit and NBC's library of children's programming (including Punky Brewster and Kissyfur) and easily become NBC Universal Family Entertainment with no problem, complications, or in-fighting.

Besides which, don't forget that ER owns Classic Media. If Time Warner had bought them out, it would probably be a monopoly or something...Not really.

A monopoly means that they would corner a specific marketplace by being the only one who provides it. Viacom and Disney would disagree on you in that aspect.

If anything, they'd be more bloated than they already are and still unable to do anything with them. Time Warner owns Warner Bros. Animation, Hanna-Barbera Productions, DC Comics, Cartoon Network Productions, the latter half of the Rankin-Bass library, and Harry Potter. Thousands of hours of programming. Volumes and volumes of entertainment. And yet, they're the MOST . . . you know. Adding Entertainment Rights (who also owns the Filmation library, international brands like Postman Pat, the Jay Ward library, the Total Television library, the Harvey Entertainment library, Big Ideas Productions [the VeggieTales people], The Lone Ranger, Lassie, Lamb Chop, Little Golden Books, and the Rankin-Bass library Time Warner doesn't own).

The only good things to come out of Time Warner buying Entertainment Rights is that the Rankin-Bass library will be united again, DC Comics would publish Harvey Comics (Casper and Richie Rich), Lone Ranger, and Western Publishing/Gold Key (Solar: Man of the Atom, Magnus: Robot Fighter, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter) comic titles. And that's it.

[Pomegranate]

Jeff Harris is right about what would happen if TW actually absorbed ER! They(TW) couldn't even handle their own animation library(e.g. denying Turner access to the WB library, hiring a nutcase as the media conglomerate's CEO and CN giving outside acquisitions the shaft as of very recently.) properly and those greedy media conglomerates are already big enough as it is, so we need more truly independent media firms for those reasons!

[Eric B]

You know, I actually don't want Time Warner to buy any entertainment properties anymore unless they learn how to use the entertainment properties they already own. Seriously, why isn't Looney Tunes on the air in the United States at all? Why isn't a large company like Time Warner using synergistic strategies to create a stronger marketplace and added value to the company's shrinking stock price? Why would they purposely bury The Powerpuff Girls, the most marketable property Cartoon Network has ever created (and the only one to attract boys AND girls)?

Ah, Time Warner, the MOST . . . you know.

Truth be told, the only company that logically flows with what Entertainment Rights is all about is NBC Universal, and that's who I'd prefer to acquire the company. Why?

Well, both NBC Universal and Entertainment Rights are already partners in several ventures. Entertainment Rights, through its Classic Media division, is a partner with NBC Uni on the qubo block and digital channel. Many of Entertainment Rights properties, including Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, and Casper, are already used by NBC Universal units. NBC Uni is also distributing ER's titles on video/DVD in the US and, in the case of VeggieTales movies, theatrically.

Plus, unlike Time Warner, NBC Universal is willing to expand and create new outlets and uses out of their properties. Globally, NBC Uni is a majority owner of the KidsCo children's entertainment network, which is coming everywhere except Canada and the US. They could also create an American-based equivalent to KidsCo (qubo isn't it, though two of the three KidsCo owners [NBC Uni and Corus Entertainment] are partners in that endeavor as well) utilizing ER's massive library of animation and children's programming, a unit NBC Universal is kind of lacking compared to their competitors.

Entertainment Rights could easily merge with the Universal Animation unit and NBC's library of children's programming (including Punky Brewster and Kissyfur) and easily become NBC Universal Family Entertainment with no problem, complications, or in-fighting.

Not really.

A monopoly means that they would corner a specific marketplace by being the only one who provides it. Viacom and Disney would disagree on you in that aspect.

If anything, they'd be more bloated than they already are and still unable to do anything with them. Time Warner owns Warner Bros. Animation, Hanna-Barbera Productions, DC Comics, Cartoon Network Productions, the latter half of the Rankin-Bass library, and Harry Potter. Thousands of hours of programming. Volumes and volumes of entertainment. And yet, they're the MOST . . . you know. Adding Entertainment Rights (who also owns the Filmation library, international brands like Postman Pat, the Jay Ward library, the Total Television library, the Harvey Entertainment library, Big Ideas Productions [the VeggieTales people], The Lone Ranger, Lassie, Lamb Chop, Little Golden Books, and the Rankin-Bass library Time Warner doesn't own).

The only good things to come out of Time Warner buying Entertainment Rights is that the Rankin-Bass library will be united again, DC Comics would publish Harvey Comics (Casper and Richie Rich), Lone Ranger, and Western Publishing/Gold Key (Solar: Man of the Atom, Magnus: Robot Fighter, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter) comic titles. And that's it.

I hear what you're saying. I didn't know a lot of that stuff they owned (half of Rankin-Bass? I guess that would be Thundercats and stuff? I don't know much of what else they did besides their 60's/70's stuff like the holiday specials and Jackson 5ive).
It's just that CN and BOOM seemed like the most extensive dedicated cartoon stations, and had the most "mainstream" classic stuff (HB, WB); hence why I stuck with them all these years, and did not pay much attention to Nick (except when they had Looney Tunes) and Disney. So since we've all been complaining about both CN and BOOM of late; I had hoped acquisition of something like ER might spark off a rebirth of classic cartoons. But you're possibly right; if they sit on so much that they have now, they might do the same thing with ER.

PPG; I'm sure will turn up on BOOM eventually. What I wonder about is that Teen version in Japan, that never came over here!

I wonder if Post-48 Looney Tunes, they're holding out now, because they're looking to lease them to someone else (as they already did with the Amblin stuff). I have heard rumors of this. I would hate to see the stuff they aready owned fractured even more. It was so nice to have the ENTIRE WB library and new shows in one place; so briefly. But of course, as soon as they had the whole thing, airings dropped off sharply, and then it started being farmed off elsewhere, and the rest, sat on (except for Duck Dodgers and a few others). The Amblin stuff was sent back to Nick, and I lost track of it for good. Now; it's on Disney or something, right? And of course, the pre-48's; who knows why they're not airing them. I think that without the post-48's, the pre-48's just get played to death. But again, right as the post-48's were coming over from WB, Nick, and finally ABC, airings dwindled down to nothing.
We're all demanding change from them, so it would be nice if apart of that change would be the addition of something like ER; especially since BOOM was running the HB stuff into the ground with the three repeating 8 hour blocks; back when they were focusing only on older cartoons.

I suggested BOOM, because it would be nice to have Filmation together with HB, since those were the two leading Saturday morning studios; and I did not know of any other place that gave that much attention to classic cartoons. I had always said that Viacom or someone else should have had a rival "Cartoon Network" (Back in its classic days), or Boomerang, and then it would be sort of like the old days with Filmation largely on CBS, and HB perhaps being most concentrated on NBC. I guess you had Toon Disney, but that did not seem to be the same kind of thing.
Plus, CN/BOOM were simply familiar, and I already had them (until now, moving a few blocks away to a different cable that does not have BOOM).

So if this NBC Uni or whatever has or can create such a cartoon channel, and it doesn't take a decade for it to be on my cable system, then let them do it!

[Jeff Harris]

Disney now owns most of the Muppet characters and series with exception of Sesame Street (owned by Sesame Workshop), Fraggle Rock (owned by The Jim Henson Company) and maybe a few others.To break down the former Henson properties:

Muppets (including the word "muppet") and all related productions, Bear in the Big Blue House, and Dinosaurs: Muppets Holding Group (i.e. Disney)

Sesame Street's Muppets (they're the only ones that can still use the word "muppet" to describe their characters) and Big Bag: Sesame Workshop

Everything Else (includes Fraggle Rock, Farscape, Animal Show, Emmitt Otter's Jug Band [sans the Kermit scenes], The Dark Crystal, The Storyteller, Labyrinth, Monster Maker, and countless others): The Jim Henson Company

[Eric B]

I know why the property would be split between Henson and Sesame, but why doesn't Henson get back ownership from Disney?

[BartWinkle]

Don't know if this is related, but, a few years ago, MGM was on the market, and I hoped that Time Warner would acquire the studio, if only to have all the MGM properties back together, only for TW to bow out and have Sony and a number of partners buy MGM instead.