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Universal Studios, Inc.

American media and entertainment conglomerate From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Universal Studios, Inc.
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This article is about the media conglomerate. For other uses, see Universal Studios (disambiguation).

Universal Studios, Inc. (formerly known as MCA Inc., also known simply as Universal) is an American mass media and entertainment conglomerate and holding company which owns Universal Pictures and other media and entertainment assets. It is the film production arm of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. The company is one of two namesake flagship subsidiaries of NBCUniversal alongside the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the oldest of the United States' Big Three television networks.

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Originally founded in 1924 as Music Corporation of America by Jules C. Stein and William R. Goodheart Jr., the company became a major force in the film industry, and later expanded into television production. The company published music, booked acts, ran a record company, represented film, television, and radio stars, and eventually produced and sold television programs to the three major television networks, especially corporate sibling NBC. Its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City.

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History

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See also: MCA Inc. § History

Seagram

On December 9, 1996, a year after its acquisition by Seagram, MCA was rebranded to Universal Studios, Inc.[1] and MCA's music division, MCA Music Entertainment Group, was renamed Universal Music Group. MCA Records continued to live on as a label within the Universal Music Group. The following year, G. P. Putnam's Sons was sold to the Penguin Group subsidiary of Pearson PLC.

In 1996, Universal Studios filed a lawsuit against Viacom over Viacom's launch of the TV Land cable network. Viacom had purchased Paramount in 1994, and the contract for USA Network prohibited either of their owners from owning cable channels outside the joint venture.[2] Viacom had owned MTV Networks (the parent of TV Land) since 1985. The suit was settled when Viacom sold MCA its half of the joint venture. TV Land eventually added shows from the MCA/Universal library in 1999.

Vivendi and NBCUniversal

To raise money, Seagram head Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold Universal's television holdings, including cable network USA, to Barry Diller (these same properties would be bought back later at greatly inflated prices). In June 2000, Seagram was sold to French water utility and media company Vivendi, which owned StudioCanal; the conglomerate then became known as Vivendi Universal.

In the spring of 2003, MCA Records was folded into Geffen Records.[citation needed] Its country music label, MCA Nashville Records, is still in operation. MCA's classical music catalog is managed by Deutsche Grammophon.[citation needed]

Burdened with debt, in 2004, Vivendi Universal sold 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (including the studio and theme parks) to General Electric (GE), parent of NBC.[3] However, the sale of Universal to NBC and GE did not include Universal Music Group, which had been a part of the film company since 1962. UMG was placed under separate management through Vivendi.[4] The resulting company was named NBCUniversal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. After that deal, GE owned 80% of NBC Universal; Vivendi held the remaining 20%, with an option to sell its share in 2006.

In late 2005, Viacom's Paramount Pictures acquired DreamWorks SKG after acquisition talks between GE and DreamWorks stalled. Universal's long-time chairperson, Stacey Snider, left the company in early 2006 to head up DreamWorks. Snider was replaced by then-Vice chairman Marc Shmuger and Focus Features head David Linde. On October 5, 2009, Marc Shmuger and David Linde were ousted, and their co-chairperson jobs were consolidated under former president of worldwide marketing and distribution Adam Fogelson, becoming the single chairperson. Donna Langley was also upped to co-chairperson.[5] In 2009, Stephanie Sperber founded Universal Partnerships & Licensing within Universal to license consumer products for Universal.[6] GE purchased Vivendi's share in NBCUniversal in 2011.[7]

Comcast

GE sold 51% of the company to cable provider Comcast in 2011. Comcast merged the former GE subsidiary with its own cable-television programming assets, creating the current NBCUniversal. Following Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, the Comcast-GE deal was closed on January 29, 2011.[8] In March 2013, Comcast bought the remaining 49% of NBCUniversal for $16.7 billion.[9]

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Universal Filmed Entertainment Group

Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG) is an organizational unit within Universal Studios,[10] a entertainment company and a division of NBCUniversal, which is a division of Comcast Corporation. UFEG functions as a coordinated framework encompassing various subsidiary companies and divisions responsible for the creation, marketing, and distribution of films and audiovisual content. UFEG operates under the umbrella of Universal Studios, serving as a key division overseeing several entities, including Universal Studios, Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Illumination, DreamWorks Animation, and Focus Features. The CEO of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group is Donna Langley.

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Units

Film library

Universal Studios holds the rights to the film library through its divisions and subsidiaries such as Universal Pictures, Universal Animation Studios, Focus Features, Illumination, and DreamWorks Animation.

Main articles: Universal Pictures and Lists of Universal Pictures films

See also

References

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