Sport1 Medien
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sport1 Medien AG (previously known as Constantin Medien AG and EM.TV) is a media company based in Ismaning near Munich which operates internationally.
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| Formerly |
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|---|---|
| Company type | Aktiengesellschaft |
| Founded | 1989; 34 years ago |
| Headquarters | Ismaning, Germany |
Key people | Olaf Schroder (President) Paul Graf (Supervisory board) |
| Revenue | €119 million (2018) |
| Owner | Highlight Communications |
Number of employees | 583 (2018) |
| Website | https://www.sport1-medien.de/en/ |
History
Summarize
Perspective
- 1989 - EM.TV was founded by Thomas Haffa. The name "EM.TV" stands for "Entertainment, Merchandising, TV."
- 1996 - The company created Junior, a company and TV channel that held licenses to most of the animated TV shows in the library of the KirchGruppe, the Media Group of Leo Kirch, where Thomas Haffa started his career.
In 1997, EM.TV went public and started to expand in various businesses.
In October 1997, EM.TV & Merchandising announced a production partnership with Australian animation studio Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow the producer of Blinky Bill to co-produce 10 of the Australian animation studio's animated series with EM.TV handling distribution and merchandising the 10 animated projects outside of Australia.[1] Their successful partnership with them lead to EM.TV acquiring a 50% stake in the Australian animation studio Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow from both Australian company Village Roadshow (when they exited the television production) two years later in March 1999 renaming it to Yoram Gross EM.TV as their own Australian animation studio with its founders Yoram and Sandra Gross retaining their 50% stake in the rebranded animation studio.
In August 1999, EM.TV & Merchandising announced that they've taken a 25% stake in German independent film production company Constantin Film including the latter's 51% stake in Olga Film, marking their entry into the feature film business and increasing their family entertainment business.[2]
In September 1999, EM.TV & Merchandising entered a joint venture with Danish magazing publishing company Egmont to launch a publishing subsidiary that could bring EM.TV's productions under one roof named Junior.Publishing.[3] One week later in that same month of the same year, EM.TV announced that they've acquired a 49% stake in German production and distribution company Tele München Gruppe (TMG) in order for the former to expand their children's entertainment library and it's feature film activites.[4]
- 1999 - Junior sets up a home video company called Planet Junior. The company then expands into Spain and Italy.
- 2000 - In February, EM.TV buys The Jim Henson Company for $680 million.
- 2000 - When EM.TV's market capitalization was about €10 billion, the company acquired the Jim Henson Company and 50% of SLEC Ltd., the holding company of the famous Formula One racing series. Because of an option to purchase another 25% of SLEC Ltd. from Bernie Ecclestone for 1 Billion EUR, EM.TV had problems funding the transaction via the capital markets.
- Between late 2000, when the company reported incorrect quarterly results, and 2002, EM.TV's stock fell from its price of €120 EUR to penny stock status.
In June 2001, EM.TV & Merchandising exited the internet operations and announced that they've shuttered down their website Junior-Web sold their internet activities division EM Interactive to German media fund Victory Media Group and had it renamed along with Junior-Web to InteractiveMedia with former banker Peter Kolb managing the renamed division as EM.TV will licence the Junior brand to them.[5] A month later in late-July 2001, EM.TV and their American entertainment subsidiary The Jim Henson Company sold their 8% minority stake in Crown Media Holdings including their channel Odyssey Network to it's investor Hallmark Entertainment and rebranded it to Hallmark Channel with EM.TV and their American entertainment subsidiary The Jim Henson Company striking a deal with Crown Media to license series from EM.TV's own library including their Henson library.[6]
- 2001 - In September, Werner Klatten, the former CEO of Sat.1, became the new CEO of EM.TV. He restructured the company, announced that he would sell: SLEC holding (via Gerhard Gribkowsky); Jim Henson Company; and TMG; and directed the purchase of DSF, a German sports TV station. During the restructuring, the bondholders of a 1999-issued €400 million bond got nearly 60% in company stock in exchange for their bonds.
In November 2001 two years after EM.TV & Denmark-based Egmont jointly founded Junior.Publishing, EM.TV announced their exiting of the publishing business by selling its 50% of their joint venture children's publishing company Junior.Publishing to Egmont Group giving Egmont full control of Junior.Publishing renaming it to Egmont Publishing so that EM.TV would focus on their core entertainment business.[7]
In May 2003, EM.TV announced that they've sold their American entertainment company and the then-owner beind The Muppets and Kermit the Frog The Jim Henson Company back to the Henson family for $78 million bringing back ownership of The Jim Henson Company to the hands of Henson family once more.[8]
In January 2006 seven years after EM.TV & Merchandising's acquisition of 50% of Australian animation studio Yoram Gross EM.TV along with their successful partnership with Australian producer Yoram Gross through EM.'s division EM.Entertainment, EM.TV & Merchandising under their entertainment division EM.Entertainment announced their full acquisition of the remaining 50% stake of Australian entertainment and animation studio joint venture Yoram Gross EM.TV from it's founders Yoram Gross and his wife Sandra Gross giving EM. Entertainment full control of the Australian animation and production group.[9] By October 2006 following their acquisition of the remaining 50% stake ten months prior, Yoram Gross EM.TV announced their restructed and re-branded the company under it's current name to Flying Bark Productions with the rebranded company plans to expanded their portfolio into the adult-animated and children's genre alongside their distribution division Yoram Gross Distribution which was also renamed to Flying Bark Distribution like their renamed company under EM.Entertainment.[10][11]
- 2007 - The company purchased a stake in the Swiss media company Highlight Communications AG, which in 2008 was increased gradually to 47.3%.
In May 2007, EM.TV announced that they're planning to exit the children's entertainment buisness and to sell their children's division including their Australian entertainment & animation production studio Flying Bark Productions, it's distribution library including Yoram Gross' animated productions such as Blinky Bill, the library of Japanese animation studio Zuiyo and it's classic catalogue such as Maya the Bee and Vic the Viking and their German television channel Junior.[12]
In late-June 2007, EM.TV & Merchandising
In late-May 2008 one year after EM.TV & Merchandising changed it's name to EM.Sport Media AG, EM.Sport Media AG annouched that they've edited the children's entertainment and animation business and had sold their children's entertainment division EM.Entertainment alongside their Australian entertainment & animation studio Flying Bark Productions, their German television channel Junior and their distribution library including Yoram Gross' animated productions such as Blinky Bill, the library of Japanese animation studio Zuiyo and it's classic catalogue such as Maya the Bee and Vic the Viking to Belgian children's production company Studio 100 for €41 million in order for EM.Sport Media to focus on their expanded sport activities with Studio 100 taking over EM.Entertainment's Australian entertainment & animation studio as their own Australian in-house animation studio outside of Belgium and had EM.Entertainment's library under the latter's own distribution arm Studio 100 Media with Studio 100 will launch new adaptations of the two classic shows.[13][14]
- 2009 - The company changed its name to Constantin Medien AG.
On February 13, 2018, a takeover by Highlight Communications AG was completed.[15] On September 26, 2019, the company was delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.[16]
At the Annual General Meeting 2019, the change of name to Sport1 Medien AG was resolved. The change was entered in the Commercial Register of the City of Munich (HRB 148 760) on January 2, 2020 and thus became effective. The change of name is also accompanied by a change in the Company's purpose, which was also resolved by the Annual General Meeting in July last year and is now more strongly aligned to the Company's activities in the digital sector.[17]
On February 23, 2024, Acun Medya acquired 50% of subsidiary Sport1 GmbH.[18]
Assets
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Former assets
Sold
- EM Interactive - sold to Victory Media Group; renamed to InteractiveMedia in 2001.[19]
- Flying Bark Productions - sold to Studio 100 in 2008.[20]
- The Jim Henson Company - sold back to the Henson family in May 2003.[21]
- Junior - sold to Studio 100 in 2008.[22]
- Junior.Publishing - sold to Egmont Group in 2001; renamed to Egmont Publishing.[23]
Shareholdings
The subsidiaries of Sport1 Medien AG include Sport1 GmbH, Magic Sports Media GmbH, Match IQ GmbH, PLAZAMEDIA GmbH and LEITMOTIF Creators GmbH. In December 2019, the Marketing Segment, which previously belonged to Sport1 Media GmbH, was also integrated under Sport1 GmbH.
Beyond the activities of Sport1, the Sport1 Medien AG corporate portfolio includes MAGIC SPORTS MEDIA as a marketing company in the betting, poker, casino and lottery sectors, Match IQ as the full-service sports event and consulting agency for associations, leagues and clubs for internationalization, match day management and the organization of friendly matches, tournaments, training camps and trips abroad, PLAZAMEDIA in the sports and entertainment area for media channels and LEITMOTIF as consulting unit for companies and brands. Within the scope of their business activities, these companies also continue to focus on third-party business.[24]
References
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