Message #65 From:
NewsBot Date: January 8, 2007 01:00:00 AM
GNPI News Genius Products Announces Long-Term Co-Production and Distribution Agreements with Entertainment Rights Plc and Classic Media
LONDON & SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genius Products, LLC, The Weinstein Company LLC (TWC) and Entertainment
Rights Plc (“ER”) of
London, England, and Classic Media Holdings, Inc. of New York City
announced today that they have entered into long-term agreements for the
distribution and co-production and co-financing of multiple home video
and videogame productions for the family, children and teen markets. ER
is one of the U.K.’s leading independent media
groups specializing in the ownership of children’s
and family programming, characters and brands. ER recently announced an
agreement to acquire U.S.-based Classic Media, which is still subject
to, amongst other things, ER shareholders’
approval. Genius Products will be the exclusive North American
distributor of home video and certain digital media distribution rights
in Classic's and ER's catalogs of children's and faith-based animated
films as well as other titles and series.
The announcement was made today by Stephen K. Bannon, Chairman, and
Trevor Drinkwater, President and CEO of Genius Products, Inc.
(OTCBB:GNPI), Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Co-Chairmen of The Weinstein
Company, Mike Heap, CEO of Entertainment Rights Plc, and Eric Ellenbogen
and John Engelman, founders of Classic Media.
Under the terms of the multi-year distribution agreements, Genius
Products will be the North American home video and digital distributor
for ER’s and Classic’s
libraries of more than, in aggregate, 4,000 programs. Included are Lassie,
Fat Albert, Postman Pat, Rupert Bear, the best-selling holiday
specials Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, and VeggieTales,
the world’s most popular faith-based kids’
brand with more than 50 million videos sold.
Genius will also have North American home video and digital distribution
rights in new productions, including The Lone Ranger, Gumby and She
Ra. In addition, Genius will have North American distribution rights
for a slate of up to 12 new videogames to be produced and financed by
Genius based on titles in the ER and Filmation catalogs.
“We are very excited about the new
partnerships with ER and Classic Media. The economic model associated
with the new agreements is a great fit for our business and is expected
to add approximately $75 million in annual gross revenues and should
further enhance our operating margins,” said
Trevor Drinkwater, President and CEO of Genius Products. “The
combination of perennial titles such as Rudolph, Frosty, Peter
Cottontail, Fat Albert and The Archies, the introduction into
America of the highly successful brands from London, Rupert Bear
and Postman Pat, exciting new productions, and VeggieTales, the
most popular faith-based animated children’s
entertainment, will instantly position us as a leader in the
important family/faith content segment.”
In addition, Mr. Drinkwater stated, “We
believe our experienced management team, proven infrastructure and
marketing expertise working closely with Sony Wonder, Classic Media’s
prior distributor, will facilitate a quick and seamless transition for
our retail partners."
"These agreements offer an unprecedented opportunity to distribute the
characters and brands of ER and Classic throughout North America,
creating one of the leading portfolios of contemporary classic and new
children's DVD’s and digital rights in the
world,” stated Mike Heap, CEO, Entertainment
Rights Plc. “We will be introducing North
America to some of our leading characters for the first time and will,
once Classic becomes part of the ER Group, be exploiting Classic’s
content to ensure the best placement possible in the world’s
largest media market – the U.S. –
and will expand our brand recognition as we sell merchandise through
American retailers. We are delighted to be partnering with Genius and in
particular we look forward to working with The Weinstein Company, who we
believe have a unique perspective on brand development in the U.S.”
“Bob and I have a tremendous amount of
respect for the business that ER and Classic created and believe that
their content is unmatched internationally in the children and family
category,” said Harvey Weinstein. “We
are excited to begin working on co-production opportunities and look
forward to many projects going forward.”
ER, Classic and TWC will be co-producing and co-financing new animated
children's productions, including Gumby, Kung Fu Magoo, Lone
Ranger, Rupert Bear, Postman Pat and She-Ra.
North American home video and digital distribution of co-productions
will be handled by Genius Products and ER will distribute
internationally. The productions will be managed by Eric Robinson, VP of
Production and Development of TWC.
Eric Ellenbogen, CEO of Classic Media, commented, “After
many successful years with Sony Wonder, we chose Genius Products as our
distributor because their combination of major studio infrastructure and
entrepreneurial spirit will allow us to aggressively expand our home
entertainment business. We are confident that this transition will be
seamless for our retail partners and the consumer.”
Genius Products will maintain both physical and digital distribution
rights for the terms of the agreements. The transactions will
automatically grow the Genius Products library to over 2,800 titles.
“I am very proud of our early track record of
strategically expanding our position in the entertainment industry
through the introduction of new brands and content-provider partnerships
across the four verticals of Sports, Family/Faith, Lifestyle and
Independent Film product segments,” said
Stephen K. Bannon, Chairman of Genius Products. “The
new agreement with ER and Classic will position us as one of the leaders
in the Family/Faith segment just as our agreement with ESPN positioned
us as a leader in the Sports segment.”
Additionally, Genius’s initiative with ER in
the development and production of new videogames based on ER catalog
titles marks a significant advance in the expansion of Genius’s
business.”
About Genius Products
Genius Products, Inc. (OTCBB:GNPI), along with The Weinstein Company
Holdings LLC, together owns Genius Products, LLC, a leading independent
home-entertainment distribution company that produces, licenses and
distributes a valuable library of motion pictures, television
programming, family, lifestyle and trend entertainment on DVD and other
emerging platforms through its expansive network of retailers throughout
the U.S. Genius handles the distribution, marketing and sales for such
brands as WWE®, Asia Extreme(TM), Baby Genius®,
Dragon Dynasty(TM), Dimension Films, ESPN®,
IFC®, NBC News®,
Sundance Channel Home Entertainment®,
Wellspring(TM), RHI Entertainment and The Weinstein Company®.
Genius Products, Inc. is the managing member of Genius Products, LLC, in
which it holds a 30% equity interest.
About Entertainment Rights Plc
Entertainment Rights Plc is one of the UK's leading specialist media
groups focused on the ownership of high quality children's and family
programming, characters and brands. ER owns or controls the rights to
many global characters, including Postman Pat®,
Rupert Bear®, He-Man and the
Masters of the Universe®, Basil Brush®,
Jess the Cat™, Fat Albert and the
Cosby Kids™, She-Ra®,
Jim Jam and Sunny™ and Little Red
Tractor™, as well as selected rights to
brands such as Mattel's Barbie™,
Scholastic's Clifford™, Hasbro's Transformers™,
Harveytoons Casper the Friendly Ghost and Classic Media's Felix
the Cat.
About Classic Media Holdings, Inc.
Classic Media Holdings, Inc. manages some of the world's most
recognizable family properties across all media including feature film,
television, home video and consumer products. The company's extensive
library of approximately 3,500 episodes of animation programming and
live-action characters includes such well known brands as Lassie,
Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Lone Ranger, Underdog, Rocky &
Bullwinkle, Mr. Magoo, Richie Rich, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,
Little Lulu, Pat the Bunny, Lamb Chop, Dick Tracy, Gerald McBoing Boing,
Roger Ramjet, George of the Jungle and VeggieTales.
About The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (TWC) was created by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the
brothers who founded Miramax Films Corp. in 1979. TWC is a multi-media
company that officially launched on October 1, 2005. Dimension Films,
the genre label that was founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, is also
included under the TWC banner. The Weinsteins are actively working on
the production, development, acquisition and distribution of projects
for TWC and Dimension.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical matters contained herein, the matters discussed in
this press release are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking
statements reflect assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that
may affect Genius Products' business, forecasts, projections and
prospects, and cause actual results to differ materially from those in
these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the number of
anticipated home video and videogame releases, statements regarding our
anticipated gross revenues and operating margins and our stated mission,
and any other statements relating to the described transaction and the
anticipated effects thereof that are not historical statements of fact.
Actual results could vary for many reasons, including but not limited
to, the success of the strategic alliance between The Weinstein Company,
Genius Products and Entertainment Rights PLC and Classic Media Holdings,
Inc., including the ability to co-produce home video and videogame
titles, our ability to continue to acquire and keep valuable content or
expand the distribution partnership, the unpredictability of audience
demand, the success of TWC titles at box office and the popularity of
our titles on DVD, especially the Entertainment Rights PLC and Classic
Media Holdings, Inc. titles, our ability to perform under the terms of
our agreement with our content providers, especially Entertainment
Rights PLC and Classic Media Holdings, Inc.,, our ability to continue to
manage our significant growth, the effect of technological change and
the availability of alternative forms of entertainment, our ability to
maximize our operating leverage. Other such risks and uncertainties
include the matters described in Genius Products, Inc. filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update
any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances
occurring after the date of this press release.
