Pony Canyon - History

History

On October 1, 1966 Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc. opened a new record label division, called as Nippon Broadcasting System Service, Inc. in order to produce and market music from Japanese artists. The division formally changed its name in 1970 to Pony, Inc. in order to match the brand names it has been using previously. These were "PONYPak" for 8-track Cassettes from 1967, and "PONY" for cassettes from 1968. At this time in 1970 another Japanese record label Canyon Records Inc. was founded. In 1982, Pony ventured into interactive content by producing personal computer game software under the name "Ponyca". In 1984 the company entered license agreements with major overseas companies, MGM/UA, Vestron Video, Walt Disney Home Video and BBC Video, and in 1985, they established offices in New York and London. In 1986, Pony signed licensing agreements with A&M Records and in 1989 with Virgin Records to handle both companies. On October 21, 1987, Pony and Canyon merged their record operations to form Pony Canyon, Inc.

Pony Canyon is a major leader in the music industry in Japan, with its artists regularly at the top of the Japanese charts. Pony Canyon is also responsible for releasing taped concerts from its artists as well as many anime productions. In 1990, Pony Canyon branched out, and opened five subsidiaries outside Japan, one of them is a subsidiary in Singapore called Skin which was managed by Jimmy Wee and signed local English language performers such as Gwailo, Art Fazil, Chris Vadham, The Lizards' Convention, Humpback Oak and Radio Active. In addition to Singapore, Pony Canyon has also had a subsidiary in Taiwan, and a joint venture in Hong Kong and South Korea, named as Golden Pony and SAMPONY, respectively. Four of five subsidiaries were closed in 1997 due to Asian financial crisis, leaving the Malaysian subsidiary as the only subsidiary to remain in operation. However, the Hong Kong and Korean operations was reestablished as a wholly owned subsidiary, although the Korean operation had a 16% stake of local partner. In 2003, the Hong Kong and Taiwan branch of Pony Canyon, both which was affected by the financial crisis, was acquired by Forward Music.

As a video game producer, Pony Canyon brought the Ultima series from Origin Systems and the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons series from Strategic Simulations to the Nintendo Family Computer. Between 1986 and 1990, they produced remakes of the first four Ultima titles for the MSX 2 and NES platforms. These remakes improved on the original versions with re-written game code and all-new graphics.

Pony Canyon's video game library was generally released in North America by FCI, the United States sister of the Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyon never enjoyed as much success as a software producer as it did as a record label, and has long been criticized over the quality of many of its video games. Pony Canyon does not appear to be releasing any more video game titles as it has not released any video games since Virtual View: Nemoto Harumi for the PlayStation 2 in July 2003.

In 2006, the Fuji Television Network, Inc. became the major share-holder of the company.

Pony Canyon is headquartered in Tokyo with offices in Malaysia and South Korea. It employs approximately 360 people. Pony Canyon also owns the recording label Flight Master. It also distributes releases from Italian dance record company Time S.p.A. in many countries worldwide, including in Japan and in Italy.

Despite associations with Fuji TV, not all of Pony Canyon's TV show and movie library have been broadcast on Fuji TV. Some of their non-Fuji TV catalog includes Doraemon movies.