Rights
Today, many of the shows previously distributed by Viacom Enterprises are now distributed by CBS Television Distribution, while most of the theatrical output (which had included the Cannon Films and Elvis Presley libraries) are now handled by Trifecta Entertainment and Media under license from Paramount (films either produced in-house by CBS or had ancillary rights revert to CBS in later years are still distributed by CTD). However, worldwide television rights (outside of the United States and Canada) to the Cannon library belongs to MGM International Television Distribution.
There are exceptions however:
- All in the Family was later syndicated by Columbia Pictures Television Distribution, which is now Sony Pictures Television.
- As aforementioned, the MTM library changed distributors to Victory Television in 1980. Victory was later reincorporated as MTM Television Distribution in 1986, which in turn was folded into 20th Television after News Corporation bought MTM.
- Viacom was the original distributor for The Super Mario Bros. Super Show (although they were uncredited until the end of each program), produced by DiC Enterprises. That show is now owned by DHX Media for all distribution rights.
- The Dr. Seuss animated television specials produced by CBS and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises were sold to Universal Studios (owners of a theme park license for the Seuss universe and producers of a few theatrical Seuss adaptations) in 2001. NBCUniversal Television Distribution currently handles these specials for television as of the present time. The only exceptions to this are How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Horton Hears a Who! which were made by MGM Animation/Visual Arts and MGM Television and are now owned by Time Warner's Warner Bros., due to the pre-May 1986 MGM film and TV library being bought out by Turner Entertainment Co. (which itself was bought out by Time Warner along with Turner Broadcasting System.)
- Several Hanna-Barbera series that aired on CBS were once distributed by Viacom. These shows later transferred to Worldvision Enterprises (except for Harlem Globetrotters, co-produced by CBS), and are now owned by Warner Bros. Television (Worldvision itself has also been folded in part into what became CTD).
- The Garfield cartoon specials and Garfield and Friends TV show were sold to 20th Century Fox (which released the live-action Garfield movies) in 2004. The worldwide rights to the series are owned by Starz Media Global, while the DVD rights resides with Starz Media's home entertainment subsidiary Anchor Bay Entertainment.
Read more about this topic: Viacom Enterprises
Famous quotes containing the word rights:
“Women’s rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about “us”; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
“Resolved, There can never be a true peace in this Republic until the civil and political rights of all citizens of African descent and all women are practically established. Resolved, that the women of the Revolution were not wanting in heroism and self-sacrifice, and we, their daughters, are ready, in this War, to pledge our time, our means, our talents, and our lives, if need be, to secure the final and complete consecration of America to freedom.”
—Woman’s Loyal League (founded May 1861)
“If the veil were withdrawn from the sanctuary of domestic life, and man could look upon the fear, the loathing, the detestations which his tyranny and reckless gratification of self has caused to take the place of confiding love, which placed a woman in his power, he would shudder at the hideous wrong of the present regulations of the domestic abode.”
—Lydia Jane Pierson, U.S. women’s rights activist and corresponding editor of The Woman’s Advocate. The Woman’s Advocate, represented in The Lily, pp. 117-8 (1855-1858 or 1860)