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62-617: Abbey Home Media was a British home media distributor that released content aimed at children. It was founded in March 2002, as the successor company to Abbey Home Entertainment (AHE), which was acquired by the Just Group in 2000. Abbey Home Media released content from outside production companies, and also produced its own franchises, which included Bump the Elephant , Fun Song Factory , Wide-Eye and Baby Bright . Abbey Home Media's predecessor

124-511: A 50% stake in Casablanca (US) in 1977 (with the remaining 50% in 1980), Pickwick in 1978, and Decca (UK) in 1980 (the latter acquisition basically brought PolyGram full circle, see the HDD section above). PolyGram acquired United Distribution Corporation (UDC) in 1973, and changed its name to Phonodisc, Inc., and signed international distribution deals with MCA and 20th Century Records in 1976. In

186-444: A 75% majority stake in the company. In 1998, the company was in talks to sell the stake back to Ian and Anne Miles and letting AHE trade independently again. In exchange, PolyGram would acquire the rights to distribute all future Fun Song Factory Videos. In early 2000, AHE was acquired by Just Group PLC. Abbey's 'Tempo Pre-school' label was retained for pre-school products, while 'at school' video and audio products were released under

248-412: A classical music label along with Decca Records and Deutsche Grammophon. By 1985, PolyGram had returned to profitability. Wing Records was reincarnated in 1987 and became a very popular label over the following years, spawning the careers of Tony! Toni! Toné! and former Miss America , Vanessa Williams ; the label was discontinued in the mid-1990s. Fontana was revived in the U.S. in 1989, but only for

310-593: A distributor in the Netherlands. By 1931, his company Hollandsche Decca Distributie ( HDD ) had become exclusive Decca distributor for all of the Netherlands and its colonies. Over the course of the 1930s, HDD put together its own facilities for A&R , recording, and manufacturing. HDD was commercially successful during World War II because of the absence of American and British competition. Van Zoelen wanted to sell to Philips so that HDD would have sufficient financial backing when their major competitors returned after

372-512: A joint venture with animation company DIC Enterprises . The label released DIC Entertainment programmes on VHS. After Just Group filed for administration in 2002, Ian Miles formed a new company under the Abbey name called Abbey Home Media on 4 March 2002, re-acquiring former assets once owned by AHE. Abbey Home Media retained the Tempo Pre-School brand that Just Group kept during their ownership of

434-564: A large factory in Baarn and factories in France, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Nigeria, and Brazil. PPI played an important role in the introduction of the long-playing vinyl record to Europe. Columbia introduced their LP record in 1948, and Philips presented its first LP at a record retailers' convention in 1949. Philips' commitment to LP technology was an important factor in its 1951–1961 deal with Columbia. In 1962, PPI and DGG formed

496-399: A manufacturing-only business plan. (In hindsight, analysts have pointed out how Philips ultimately benefitted from the manufacture and sale of blank CDs, which played a significant part in the music piracy that began to affect the industry in the early 2000s.) After weeks of speculation, on May 22, 1998, Philips announced that they would sell PolyGram to Seagram for $ 10 billion. Some of

558-421: A second series, which aired in 2000. The company expanded into the toy and print industries by forming Jusco Toys and acquiring book publisher Burghley Publishing, later renamed Just Publishing. Just also signed a deal with Warner Bros. Consumer Products to produce products based on their properties and renew an existing magazine publishing deal. In 1999, Just Group acquired Pinky & Perky for £500,000, with

620-653: A shock profit warning. In the same month, the company showcased new projects at MIPCOM, including Wide-Eye , which was pre-sold to the BBC for delivery in autumn 2002, and several television specials. On October 16, Just closed their head office in Bakewell with the loss of 38 jobs, and was in talks on the sale of some non-core operations. The company also signed a deal with Universal Studios and subsidiary PolyGram Television to help manage Butt-Ugly Martians and allowing Universal to gain exclusive movie, home video (excluding Germany and

682-408: A short while afterward, the company's website was shut down and their Facebook page confirmed that the company had ceased operations due to "uncertain circumstances", despite this, the company was still listed as "active" on Companies House until 13 December 2022 when Abbey was officially dissolved. Bump (British TV series) Bump is a British animated children's television series which

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744-468: A short while. Today, Fontana Distribution is an independent label distribution unit of Universal Music Group. Vertigo Records still remained a rare U.S. PolyGram label, as most of its music was from Europe. In April 1982, PolyGram assumed operational and managerial control of 20th Century Fox Records from its similarly named parent , which had just recently been bought out by oil magnate Marvin Davis , who

806-455: A solution. Most of these animals are recurring characters, and all of the characters' Stoppit and Tidyup -like sounds were generated by analogue synthesizers. All thirteen of the first series' episodes were initially shown on BBC One as part of the Children's BBC strand on Fridays at 3:50   pm. All thirteen of the second series' episodes were initially screened on BBC One, again as part of

868-426: A total of twenty-six episodes, each 5 minutes long. The twenty-seventh and final episode was a Christmas special that was 10 minutes long. The programme is narrated by Simon Cadell (1950–1996) of Hi-de-Hi! fame. Bump and Birdie regularly encounter animals that have a problem (such as Whizzer the mouse, Munch the tortoise, McDuff the dog, Big Bun and Little Bun the rabbits and Batty the bat) and help them to find

930-461: A year after the company was founded. Tempo Video was the mainstream video label for Abbey Home Entertainment and continued to be used until 2000, when the label was discontinued by AHE's new owner, Just Group. The Tempo label was also used within Abbey-distributed audio cassettes, under labels including Tempo Audio , Tempo Twins , Tempo Reed and Tempo Children's Classics . Tempo Video was

992-565: Is currently held by the Indian-based YoBoHo New Media Pvt. Ltd. , the owners of the HooplaKidz YouTube media network. Another predecessor of Abbey Home Media was Tempo Video , which was originally launched by video distributor MSD Video in 1987 as a kids-focused video label. After two years, MSD transitioned the distribution of Tempo to Collins Video and then transitioned the label to Abbey Home Entertainment in 1990,

1054-629: The Grammophon-Philips Group ( GPG ) as a joint-venture holding company, with Philips taking a 50% share in DGG and Siemens a 50% share in PPI. In 1971, the UK record labels of Philips, Fontana, Mercury, and Vertigo were amalgamated into a new company called Phonogram, Ltd. In 1972, Grammophon-Philips Group reorganized all its operations and was renamed The PolyGram Group (in some countries, like Argentina, its name

1116-569: The ITC Entertainment library, which was sold on January 19, 1999 to Carlton Communications for £91 million. On April 8, 1999, USA Networks announced they would purchase PolyGram Filmed Entertainment's domestic division (including PolyGram Video's US & Canada operation), among other assets. After the sale, the divisions were renamed USA Films and USA Home Entertainment respectively. The assets of Slash Records and London Records were sold to Warner Music Group . What remained of PolyGram

1178-625: The disco craze included the Casablanca FilmWorks production Thank God It's Friday (1978) and its associated soundtrack. During the boom in disco, PolyGram's US market share had grown from 5% to 20%. This can also be attributed to multi-million selling albums and 45s by the Bee Gees , Donna Summer , the Village People , Andy Gibb , Kool & the Gang , and rock band Kiss . For a short while in

1240-508: The Abbey brands and would later introduce the Tempo and Tempo TV Classics (Previously Tempo Classics ) brands. During the 2010s, products were released under the regular Abbey Home Media brand name. In March 2017, the company signed a deal with DHX Media to release DVDs for Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam . On 4 May 2020 it was confirmed that Anne Miles, the co-founder of Abbey, had died,

1302-636: The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange and was based in the town of Bakewell, Derbyshire, England, with additional offices in London, New York, Hong Kong and Melbourne. The company operated many subsidiaries: In the late 1990s, the company expanded into the entertainment industry and started producing animated television series. Its first series, Jellabies , proved sufficiently successful for CITV to commission

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1364-642: The Children's BBC strand, on Boxing Day 1994 at 7:55   am. Two VHS tapes, which contain all thirteen episodes of the first series between them, were released by Abbey Home Media in the UK in 1991. The first one was later reissued on DVD under the title Bump: My First DVD in 2004 (three episodes from the second series and the Christmas special were also released on another DVD, Bump: Christmas Story , in 2006, but they were never previously released on VHS). PolyGram Television Later on, PolyGram expanded into

1426-459: The Children's BBC strand, on Mondays at 3:45   pm, and although they were produced in 1993, they were not broadcast until 10 January 1994. The sixteenth episode was also renamed to just "Aunty Doreen's Surprise" when shown in the United States , while the twenty-fifth one was renamed to "Bump and the Builder". The twenty-seventh episode was initially shown on BBC One, once again as part of

1488-480: The Just Entertainment label. Abbey itself retained its special focus on the 'pre-school' and 'at school' age groups. Just Group PLC was a British holding company that focused on incorporating the creation and development of character concepts, ownership of intellectual property rights, and international licensing and distribution of character and corporate brand merchandise. The company had its shares listed on

1550-470: The US and UK markets, and did so by a process of both formation and acquisition: Polydor Records established its American operations, Polydor Incorporated in 1969, Mercury Record Productions (US) was acquired in 1972 from sister company North American Philips Corp. , and became Phonogram, Inc. MGM Records and Verve (US) were acquired in 1972. Subsequent PolyGram acquisitions included those of RSO (UK) in 1975,

1612-541: The United Kingdom and began releasing Abbey's content under their own brand, retaining the Tempo Pre-School label for pre-school content. In September 2000, Just fully acquired Optical Image for £1.5 million. In December, Just Group acquired MediaKey plc for £7.2 million. In April 2001 it was confirmed that the company had failed to file accounts for the year. In August that year, the company laid off their CEO Wilf Shorrocks and commercial director Paula Shorrock and issued

1674-470: The United Kingdom) and theme park rights to the property, as well as funding to produce more episodes. In November, the company's shares were suspended, due to lower-than-expected revenue from Butt-Ugly Martians and the failed purchase of MediaKey. Just Group filed for administration on 9 January 2002 and the shares were delisted from Aim. On 12 June 2002, it was announced that format distributor Target

1736-665: The United States. But in 1951, after Columbia had failed to renew its international distribution agreement with EMI , PPI agreed to distribute Columbia recordings outside the United States. Columbia became PPI's distributor within the US. This agreement ran until 1961 when Columbia set up its own European network. PPI signed a worldwide distribution deal with Mercury Records in 1961. PPI's parent company Philips, through its U.S. affiliate Consolidated Electronics Industries Corp (a.k.a. Conelco ), acquired Mercury in 1962. PPI built or bought factories in smaller countries. In 1962, PPI had

1798-439: The aim of focusing on the pre-school market. By the end of the year, the company had three shows in development: Wiki’s World , set for an autumn 2000 release; One Big Happy Family , set for release in 2001 as a co-production with Jellabies producer Optical Image; and Butt-Ugly Martians , a co-production with Mike Young Productions and DCDC, set for a September 2000 release. With the purchase, Just expanded into home video in

1860-594: The big budget musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (1978). The film starred the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton at the height of their popularity, and featured the Beatles covers by them as well as Aerosmith , Billy Preston , and Earth, Wind & Fire . The film was highly anticipated to surpass the box office success of both the Saturday Night Fever and Grease , mostly due to its popular music stars. The soundtrack LP, based on only advance orders,

1922-470: The company's dependence on superstars by spreading the repertoire across different genres and nurturing national and regional talent. Also by 1983, PolyGram's U.S. roster of labels included: ...which were all consolidated into PolyGram Records, Inc. (now UMG Recordings, Inc.) In 1981, PolyGram launched domestic television syndication unit PolyGram Television (unrelated to the latter day incarnation that became Universal Worldwide Television in 1997), but it

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1984-561: The company. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, PolyGram continued to invest in a diversified film unit with the purchases of individual production companies. In 1981, Philips executive Jan Timmer became a member of the Group Management of PolyGram and was appointed president and chief executive officer of newly formed parent company, PolyGram International Ltd. in 1983. He cut the workforce from 13,000 to 7,000, reduced PolyGram's LP and cassette plants from eighteen to five, and decreased

2046-571: The disco craze ended in 1979 and record sales for both the Bee Gees and Casablanca's Village People plummeted. PolyGram also experienced losses with the defection of Casablanca's Donna Summer to newly formed Geffen Records as well as the dropping of Andy Gibb , whose personal problems with cocaine and alcohol began to affect his recording career, from RSO. Summer and the Bee Gees also had legal disputes with their labels which further complicated matters. Summer ended her contract with PolyGram in 1980, and

2108-553: The intention of producing a new television series and expanding into the North American market. The company later signed a deal with Carlton Television subsidiary Planet 24 in July 2001 to create a stage show and comedy series oriented at an adult audience and titled Pinky & Perky in Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Bacon Roll . In 1999, the company acquired Abbey Home Entertainment for $ 2.1 million, with

2170-403: The largest global entertainment company, creating film and television divisions. In May 1998, it was sold to the alcoholic distiller Seagram which owned film, television and music company Universal Studios . PolyGram was thereby folded into Universal Music Group , and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was folded into Universal Pictures , which had been both Seagram successors of MCA Inc. When

2232-756: The largest record company in Europe. PPI's second attempt at a merger was with Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (DGG). DGG, owned by Siemens AG , and well known for its classical repertoire, had been the German licensee for Decca from 1935. DGG also owned Polydor Records . Shortly after PPI was founded it had made a formal alliance with DGG to manufacture each other's records, coordinate releases, and refrain from poaching each other's artists or bidding against each other for new talent. PPI and DGG finally merged in 1962. The alliance with DGG still left PPI without repertoire in Britain or

2294-403: The late 1940s, Philips combined its various music businesses into Philips Phonografische Industrie ( PPI ), a wholly owned subsidiary. PPI's early growth was based on alliances. A merger was first proposed with Decca of London in late 1945, but was rejected by Edward Lewis , Decca's owner. (PolyGram finally acquired Decca in 1980.) In the early 1950s, Philips set itself the goal of making PPI

2356-538: The late 1950s and early 1960s, Philips had been at work on a new consumer magnetic tape format for music. The Philips Compact Cassette was introduced in 1963. It was small and could play longer than an LP. In 1965 the cassette accounted for 3% of revenues, growing in 1968 to 8% and in 1970 to 10.6%. In the late 1960s, and through the 1970s, GPG/PolyGram diversified into film and television production and home video. RSO's successes included Saturday Night Fever and Grease . PolyGram's highly successful marketing during

2418-420: The late 1970s, it was the world's largest record company. In 1969, PolyGram established a direct mail-order business in the UK, Britannia Music Club , which ran till 2007. Before 1978, PolyGram was losing money. When US operations were running at full capacity, PolyGram expanded aggressively, and would press large quantities of records without knowing the demand. In late 1979, PolyGram was caught off guard by

2480-500: The mid-1980s to 7-9% by the early 1990s. As well, videos were distributed by PolyGram Video . In 1988, Philips acquired the remaining 50% of PolyGram from long-time partner Siemens and later in 1989, floated 16% of PolyGram on the Amsterdam stock exchange, valuing the whole company at $ 5.6 billion. PolyGram embarked on a new program of acquisitions, including A&M and Island Records in 1989, Swedish company Polar Music which held

2542-615: The newly formed entertainment division of Seagram faced financial difficulties, it was sold to Vivendi , and MCA became known as Universal Studios, as Seagram ceased to exist. Vivendi remains the majority owner of the Universal Music Group (while the film and television division was sold to NBCUniversal ) until 2021. In February 2017, UMG revived the company under the name of PolyGram Entertainment , which currently serves as their film and television division. In 1929, Decca Records (London) licensed record shop owner H.W. Van Zoelen as

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2604-691: The reasons cited for the deal were a lack of pop hits from the music side of the company, and an equal lack of box-office successes from the film side. Alain Levy resigned as CEO of PolyGram on June 23 to prepare for the merger, and the deal was closed on December 10, 1998, with PolyGram's operations folding into Universal Pictures and Universal Music Group . Seagram however, was only interested in PolyGram's music division, and in October 1998 they announced that they would begin divesting PolyGram's entertainment assets, while

2666-488: The remainder would be folded into Universal. Prior to this announcement, the company announced the sale of their 75% stake in children's distributor Abbey Home Entertainment back to its original founders and the acquisition of Astrion plc. On October 23, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer agreed to purchase PolyGram Filmed Entertainment 's pre-April 1996 library for $ 250 million, which included over 1,300 films from various assets PolyGram had acquired within that point, but did not include

2728-565: The remains of PolyGram's theatrical assets would then be folded into United International Pictures. Mickey Blue Eyes would become the last film distributed under the ex-PolyGram unit. The PolyGram name now survives via reissue of music under the Polydor Records label as well as a publishing arm of Universal Music Publishing Group . The Japanese branches of the PolyGram labels that were absorbed to form Universal Music Japan and were rebranded: Polydor remained until 2002, when it merged with

2790-523: The rights to the ABBA catalogue, Motown and Def Jam in 1994 and Rodven (Venezuela) in 1995. In 1990, after acquiring both Island and A&M, Alain Levy , (then) executive vice-president of PolyGram N.V., re-organized the U.S. operations of PolyGram Records, Inc. into a new expanded conglomerate: PolyGram Group Distribution, Inc. In addition to overseeing the sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution of music and video products created by PolyGram, PGD

2852-420: The sudden end of the popularity of disco music, leaving it with an underutilized distribution network, profligate labels, and over optimistic product orders. PolyGram's Casablanca label was known for management spending on lavish industry parties and luxury cars. After 1980, PolyGram's losses had spiraled upwards of US$ 220 million. Another contributing factor to PolyGram's financial woes was the massive failure of

2914-430: The time he took over, Philips was seen as a bloated company, laden with too many layers of management and unrelated companies that they could not leverage effectively. As a result, Boonstra began to sell or dispose of various non-core assets. While Philips began to withdraw from other media activities, Boonstra denied that PolyGram was for sale. However, by early 1998, he had changed his attitude, instead deciding to pursue

2976-730: The war, Philips built a large factory in Doetinchem to produce 78 rpm records. Recording took place in Hilversum, whereas development took place in Eindhoven. In the 1940s, the record business was spread out within Philips: research in the Eindhoven labs, development elsewhere in Eindhoven, recording in Hilversum , manufacturing in Doetinchem , distribution from Amsterdam , and exports from Eindhoven. During

3038-698: The war. This led Philips to purchase HDD in 1942. In the mid 20th century, the majority of large recording companies manufactured both gramophones and records; Philips CEO Anton Philips noted the risk in creating gramophones without an interest in music recording and record manufacture, and that Radio Corporation of America (RCA) had merged with the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1929 for this reason. Philips' labs were developing magnetic tape and LPs , and they could support eventual new formats, although other record companies were notably unenthusiastic about experimenting with new formats. After

3100-463: Was Abbey Home Entertainment Group Limited (AHE), founded in 1989 by Ian and Anne Miles. AHE acquired the Tempo Video brand name from WM Collins Video in 1990 and introduced several brands: A subsidiary called Abbey Broadcast Communications produced original content for AHE on both VHS and audio cassette. This division became dormant in the early 2000s. In 1995, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment acquired

3162-401: Was Phonogram), of which Philips and Siemens each owned 50%. In 1977, both organizations merged operationally, integrating the recording, manufacturing, distribution and marketing into a single organization. The various record labels within PolyGram continued to operate separately. PolyGram gave its labels, as A&R organizations, great autonomy. After the merger, PolyGram began to move into

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3224-535: Was also responsible for supervising a number of other divisions within PolyGram (U.S.) such as: PolyGram Music Group, PolyGram Video, PolyMedia, PolyGram Special Markets, PolyGram Merchandising, Independent Label Sales (ILS) and New Media & Business Development. PolyGram and Granada TV formed a joint venture, Big Picture Productions, in 1990 as a music programing firm which, at Cannes in 1990, purchased exclusive international distribution rights to Brown Sugar (The two-hour special featured black female performers and

3286-448: Was awarded the rights to her songwriting catalog by the courts; she owed them one more album, and finished out her contract by recording her album She Works Hard For The Money (from which the title track was a huge hit in 1983). In 1980, after PolyGram bought the other 50% of Casablanca Records and Filmworks, PolyGram renamed its existing Casablanca Records & Filmworks unit as PolyGram Pictures with Peter Guber becoming chairman of

3348-499: Was created by Charles Mills and Terry Brain (who had previously created The Trap Door and Stoppit and Tidyup ), produced by Queensgate Productions and originally shown on BBC One from 14 September 1990 to 26 December 1994. The series' two main protagonists are the eponymous Bump (an elephant who is very clumsy, a trait that emphasised by a bandage on his forehead) and his friend Birdie (a bluebird who often gives Bump advice on how he can become more graceful). The two series ran

3410-472: Was folded into both Universal Music Group and Universal Pictures. On February 10, 1999, Universal announced that they would pull out of their CIC Video and United International Pictures ventures with Paramount Pictures and rebrand PolyGram Filmed Entertainment's international division (including PolyGram Video's international operation) under the Universal name. Whilst the home video division rebranding

3472-568: Was hosted by Billy Dee Williams ) from the New York–based Gene David Group. In June 1991, Alain Levy was promoted to worldwide president and CEO of PolyGram N.V. In 1993, PolyGram purchased the video arm of Virgin Group from General Electric Capital for $ 5.6 million and remodeled the label as Vision Video ltd. In 1995, PolyGram purchased ITC Entertainment for $ 156 million. In 1996, Cor Boonstra became CEO of Philips; by

3534-703: Was in talks to acquire and merge with the Just Group. However, nothing came from this after the initial announcement, with the JustAction Group instead putting together a company voluntary arrangement, which allowed the Just Group to exit administration in August 2002, rebranding as Newscreen Media Group PLC. The rescue plan eventually collapsed and Newscreen Media Group filed for administration again in 2004. The company soon folded, with its assets being shared between its management and newly formed business Think Entertainment PLC. The ownership of Jellikins and Butt-Ugly Martians

3596-638: Was named president and CEO of PolyGram. Asher was formerly the attorney for Don Kirshner 's Aldon Music music publishing company. The CD, invented by Philips and Sony , helped greatly in boosting the company's sales and market share. PolyGram's strength in classical music helped greatly, as many of the CD's early adopters were classical music lovers. Total US sales of CDs were $ 1 million in 1983, $ 334 million in 1990 and $ 943 million in 2000. Total UK sales were $ 300,000 in 1983, $ 51 million in 1990 and $ 202 million in 2000. The CD increased PolyGram's profit margin from 4-6% in

3658-473: Was not interested in keeping the record company. The assets of the former 20th Century Fox Records were fully acquired by the firm in July 1982, and subsequently were consolidated with the Casablanca label. After an attempted 1983 merger with Warner Elektra Atlantic failed, Philips bought 40% of PolyGram from Siemens, acquiring the remaining 10% in 1987. In 1985, former CBS and Columbia executive Dick Asher

3720-481: Was released triple platinum. The movie was released to poor reviews and died at the box office. Despite its triple platinum start, the soundtrack LP's sales bombed after the film's release. In turn, record dealers flooded PolyGram with returned LPs. The resulting losses nearly wiped out the profits the company had made on both the Saturday Night Fever and Grease soundtracks. The company took further loses when

3782-446: Was soon folded after two years. Under its newly reorganized form, PolyGram decided to discontinue Philips as a pop and rock label in the UK and much of Europe, though it was still frequently issued records in France and South East Asia, where it issued many albums and singles by Chinese and Hong Kong pop artists. The majority of PolyGram's rock and pop music signings went to Mercury and Polydor. Philips became part of PolyGram Classics as

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3844-473: Was successful (with CIC rebranding under the Paramount umbrella toward the end of 1999 ), the theatrical division rebranding would prove to be a failure, as films from the rebranded Universal Pictures International flopped at the box office, the company therefore announced in October 1999 that their operations would be downgraded to the home video market only and renewed their UIP deal with Paramount for five years,

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