Building A Better Media Conglomerate

Want to play a little game? 

Back in the day when I was working full-time on TXB, I created a series of articles called "Imagine If." Essentially, reimagined scenarios of media companies doing things they likely could have done in the past but decided against it. 

Saban buying Funimation. Warner Communications keeping Nickelodeon. Ted Turner actually buying CBS. The USA Cartoon Express lasting beyond 1998. 

Things like that. 

This is no different. 

I was given a challenge by reader and fellow AU scenario writer Chandler Ritter-Roberts over at Bluesky.

The challenge? 

 Building a media company that could become a massive modern media conglomerate. 

#BuildYourAltConglomerate, as his hashtag goes. 

I could create a company as big as I want to counter what two of the biggest media companies, Warner Bros Discovery and The Walt Disney Company, could do and create a realistic media empire. 

The one caveat in this game? While every media company is fair game and you have an endless fount of funds at hand, I could only use two “chips” here: one of those chips is from the current Warner Bros Discovery and one is from the current Disney.   

Imagine it’s 1991. A year earlier, Time, Inc. bought a majority stake in Warner Communications to form the largest media company on the planet at the time, Time Warner.

For example, I could use HBO and Pixar, but I couldn't also use DC Comics and Lucasfilm along with them. One or the other, not both. Don't double-dip because, as you know, double-dipping your chips is wrong. And gross. So, I had to choose my "chips" very carefully.

Aside from that, the sky's the limit for my alternative universe media company. I have to say I had a little too much fun with this one. I broke down most of the years and highlighted the most significant parts of the history of this company from 1991 to 2018. I think 2018 was a good stopping point here, and when you see why, you'll understand too. 

Sit back, don't think too much about this, and let's play.

1991:

• A mysterious American financial investor makes an unprecedented bid to buy Sony’s Columbia Pictures Industries and CBS Records for US$7.5 billion. The new unit, Columbia Pictures Entertainment, is officially established in August 1991. 
• Columbia buys most of the public shares of comic publisher Marvel Entertainment Group, giving them a minority (40%) stake in the unit.

1992:

• Columbia signs licensing and syndication deal with Turner Broadcasting to air library TV series and pay-tv tier 2 movie cable syndication rights for TBS and TNT. Additionally, Columbia acquires a 20% stake in Turner.
• Columbia buys the Barry & Enright Productions library of game shows.
• Columbia buys Marvel Productions from New World Productions and reincorporates the animation unit under Columbia Television Animation. X-Men premieres on Fox Kids that fall.

1993:

• Columbia extends the television deal with Turner Broadcasting by providing programming to Turner’s newest channels, Cartoon Network and the upcoming Turner Classic Movies.
• Columbia buys the remaining stake in Marvel Entertainment they didn’t own from the Andrews Group preventing a potential bankruptcy for the comic publisher and fully owning the comics giant.

1994:

• Columbia extends their licensing agreements with Universal Studios Themed Entertainment to use various properties, including Marvel, which would be used as part of a new secondary park at their Orlando, Florida. 
• Columbia buys most of Malibu Comics' library of titles and publishes some of them at Marvel with a few titles to be developed into film and television projects. Most notably, The Men in Black caught the eye of the studio.
• Columbia launches the Game Show Network
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series premieres on Fox Kids.

1995:

• Columbia announces a deal to acquire Turner Broadcasting, giving Columbia full ownership to TBS, CNN, TNT, Cartoon Network, and TCM, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock Productions, and the Turner Entertainment library (which included films, shows, and shorts from MGM, RKO, and Warner Bros). Additionally, Columbia owned venerable animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions, which would remain a stand-alone studio. The combined company would be officially renamed Columbia Turner Entertainment in October 1996. Ted Turner would be named Columbia Turner’s President and Chairman of the Board and continue to head the cable television division. 
• Columbia Turner announces plans to produce films based on its Marvel Comics slate of characters under a new label, Marvel Studios. X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Incredible Hulk, Blade, Ghost Rider, The Punisher, and Fantastic Four were among initial slate of films.

1997:

• Columbia Turner buys a majority share in Canadian animation studio Mainframe Entertainment after the company goes public and partnered with Japanese animation studio Production I.G, co-financing a Los Angeles-based facility. That summer, the third season of Mainframe’s ReBoot premieres on Cartoon Network’s newest action block, Toonami. 
• Columbia Turner’s New Line Cinema releases the first film under the Marvel Studios label, Blade, an R-rated vampire horror film starring Wesley Snipes in the title role. 
• Extreme Ghostbusters, a sequel series to The Real Ghostbusters, premieres on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block in September 1997, the block’s first original series. 
• Men in Black, based on an independent comic title, premiered in July while an animated spinoff premiered in September on Kids’ WB.

1998:

• Columbia Turner buys a majority stake in video game publisher Electronic Arts and a majority stake in Production I.G.
• Shadow Raiders, a computer-animated series produced by Mainframe, premieres on Cartoon Network’s Toonami, the first original CGI series to air there. 
• Columbia Turner helps CBS reclaim broadcast rights to the NFL by creating a joint bid giving CBS the AFC package while CBS and Turner Sports would co-produce a Sunday night package for TNT.

1999:

• Columbia Turner buys CBS Corp., fully bringing the legacy broadcast channel CBS and original shows under its umbrella. Turner Sports and CBS Sports combine under one unit, CBS Turner Sports, and CBS News merges with CNN officially turning the latter into CNN: CBS News Network. TNN undergoes a format change officially becoming CTSN: CBS Turner Sports Network forging the first national competitor to ESPN. However, because Columbia Turner owns CBS Records (ironically once owned by CBS), the radio division, Infinity Broadcasting, was spun off as an independent unit. Additionally, CBS sells CMT to Viacom's MTV Networks division.
• Marvel Super Hero Island officially opens up as part of Universal Studios Florida’s Islands of Adventures theme parks. Hanna-Barbera icons like Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, Top Cat, The Flintstones, Tom & Jerry, and more are also a part of the Toon Lagoon section of the new park.

2000:

• Columbia Turner buys an equity stake in Viz Media, which enters a joint venture to distribute physical media through Columbia Turner Home Entertainment, manga through Marvel Comics, and air titles on Cartoon Network, including on its popular Toonami action cartoon block. Tenchi Muyo would be the first series to premiere on Cartoon Network after the announcement.
• X-Men is released to critical and commercial acclaim from Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures. 
• X-Men: Evolution premieres on Cartoon Network’s Toonami on Friday afternoons. It’s the first Marvel series to premiere on a Columbia Turner-owned network. 
• Cartoon Network strikes a multi-year syndication deal with Time Warner Entertainment to be the exclusive broadcast home of Looney Tunes and DC Comics animated series as well as new original series made exclusively for the channel. Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series would join the Toonami lineup in 2000, and Justice League would be the first series in the deal to premiere in late 2001.

2001:

• Columbia Turner celebrates the 10th anniversary of the modern company’s founding.
• Electronic Arts buys several independent gaming studios throughout the decade and begins a new initiative to enrich their gaming portfolios.
• World Championship Wrestling, a professional wrestling unit from Turner, shifts its marquee series WCW Monday Nitro from TNT to CTSN as the former focuses more on original scripted programming while WCW Thunder moves from Thursday on TBS to Saturday. The unit remains a licensing and global draw to this day.
• Columbia Turner sells a 40% stake in the Game Show Network to fellow game show producer Fremantle Media
• Adult Swim premieres on Cartoon Network.
• Cartoon Network launches Toonami Reactor, an experimental online streaming video portal and one of the first created by a major entertainment company. Viz Media provided editorial content for the site which was later revamped as Adult Swim Pipeline a year later.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings is released by New Line Cinema. The Two Towers and The Return of the King are released in 2002 and 2003, repeatedly, with the latter winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. The films would begin to air on premium cable network Starz the following year.

2002:

• The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera ride at Universal Studios Florida is upgraded as Escape from Dexter’s Laboratory, a simulator ride that puts the boy genius, his sister Dee-Dee, and the riders through Cartoon Network-themed areas including cameos from Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, The Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd, ‘n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Samurai Jack, and TOM from Toonami as well as a few Hanna-Barbera icons like Fred and Barney, Scooby-Doo, and Elroy Jetson and, interestingly enough, Spider-Man. Ironically, the ride wasn’t too far from the Nickelodeon Studios attraction.
• Cartoon Network celebrates its 10th anniversary 
• The fourth season of Mainframe’s ReBoot debuts on Cartoon Network in the US and YTV in Canada.
• Spider-Man and a live-action Scooby-Doo movie open up in theaters.
• Columbia Pictures Animation, a stand-alone theatrical unit, is founded
• Columbia Turner buys Bertelsmann's BMG Records and renames CBS Records as Columbia BMG Music Group, officially reuniting all the former legacy Columbia brands (Columbia Pictures, CBS, and Columbia Records) under one ownership.

2003

• Production I.G’s Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex premieres in Japan. It makes its North American debut on Adult Swim in 2004.
• Mainframe and Marvel co-produce Spider-Man: The New Animated Series which airs on Adult Swim, much to the surprise of many viewers.

2005:

• Columbia Turner buys 19 Entertainment, owner of the Idol music competition franchise.
• Cartoon Network and Production I.G co-produces IGPX, a 26-episode series based on the micro-series the pair co-produced two years earlier. It airs on Toonami in the US. 
• Columbia Pictures and its Marvel Studios division begin a secretive slate of films internally dubbed “The Avengers Initiative” which would introduce Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and other Marvel characters into a unique long-form continuity-driven film franchise and not connected to the Blade, X-Men, Spider-Man, Punisher, and Fantastic Four films.

2008:

• Iron Man, the first of the Marvel Initiative Universe films, was released to critical and commercial acclaim.
• Toonami ends its initial run on Cartoon Network.

2009:

• Wolverine and the X-Men premieres on Cartoon Network’s Friday night action block You Are Here. 
• Columbia Turner buys 35% of independent animation studio DreamWorks Animation and negotiates a deal to release its slate of films in international markets while Paramount Studios would continue to do the same in domestic markets. 
• Columbia Turner buys Embassy Row, the British producer of the global Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise. 

2010:

• CBS Turner Sports negotiate a multiyear deal to broadcast the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on CBS, TBS, TNT, and CTSN beginning in 2011.
• After 15 years as the guiding force behind the larger media empire that bears his name, Ted Turner resigns from Columbia Turner in September but given the title Chairman Emeritus.

2012:

• Partially backed by Columbia Turner, DreamWorks Animation buys Classic Media. This assistance would be seen as a key reason behind Columbia Turner buying the remaining shares of DreamWorks Animation it didn’t own. Columbia Pictures Animation would be integrated into DWA’s oversight though will continue to produce films while DreamWorks’ television unit and library would be incorporated into Columbia Television Animation Group.
• Viz Media launched Neon Alley, a linear streaming channel that focused on Japanese animation in uncut English formats. While it was a short-lived endeavor ending in 2014, it would prove to be a great test for Columbia Turner to venture into streaming media as well as provide a glimpse into the linear streaming media industry to come.
• After a four-year break, Toonami returns as a weekly Adult Swim late-night action block.
• The Avengers breaks records at the theaters and is a critical and audience success. 

2013:

• Columbia Turner announces plans to develop subchannels based on their libraries for the growing over-the-air digital television market. The first channel, GET TV (renamed GET: Great Entertainment Television in 2023), would launch a year later and be home with classic TV shows from the Columbia Television and Hanna-Barbera libraries. 
• Agents of SHIELD, the first television series set in the Marvel Initiative Universe,  premieres on CBS.

2014:

• Using CBS as the unifying brand for all things television, Columbia Turner launches CBS All-Access, a premium streaming service that also included films from Columbia, DreamWorks Animation, New Line, and Marvel Studios, CNN and CBS News programming, live CBS Turner Sports events, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim shows, Viz and Production I.G anime titles, and library shows and films. Shows from third-party studios such as Warner Bros and Paramount would also have programs and films on the service. 
• The Croods becomes the first DreamWorks Animation film released by Columbia Pictures.

2015:

• DHX Media, a Canadian-based family entertainment company, licenses Columbia Turner’s Cartoon Network and Adult Swim brands as Canadian cable channels. DHX also acquires a syndication package for Columbia Television Group’s back-catalog of shows and specials and films from Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks Animation for the next 10 years.
• Columbia Turner buys controlling interest in Liberty Starz Media for US$5.5 billion including debt. The unit spins off several companies, including Film Roman, Anchor Bay, and Overture Films, and is renamed Starz Networks Group. Starz networks are incorporated into CBS All-Access while the latter would be free to Starz subscribers at no extra charge. 
• Daredevil, based on the Marvel Comics character, debuts on CBS All-Access. The first two episodes aired on Starz while the remaining episodes would be exclusively on All-Access.

2018:

• DHX Media splits its company in half. The networks and live-action media units remain DHX Media while the animation and family entertainment unit is created and branded Wildbrain Entertainment. This allows Columbia Turner to buy an equity stake in Wildbrain and merging its Mainframe Entertainment in the new company, now renamed Wildbrain Mainframe, which continues to be Canadian-based. Columbia Television Animation Group would manage Wildbrain Mainframe properties and licenses in all regional markets except in Canada. 
• While the opportunity to buy rival companies Time Warner and 21st Century Fox was available, Columbia Turner passes citing the numerous conflicts the pair would have deal with. That said, Columbia Turner agreed to continue working with both studios in the future. 
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, an animated film co-produced by Columbia Pictures Animation and Marvel Studios, is released to critical acclaim and gives the studio an Academy Award for Best Animated Picture. 
• Black Panther, produced by Marvel Studios, is released to critical and commercial acclaim becoming the second-highest-grossing film of the year worldwide and wins numerous accolades and awards including three Academy Awards and a rare nomination for Best Picture.

And this is where I'll stop. Seems like a rather good place to do so.  No need to get messy about the years that followed. The world changed a lot in the last six years, some for the better, some for the worst, but in the end, Columbia Turner would be at a good place today.

To recap, the company I created was composed of the following parts:

• The Foundation: Columbia Pictures Entertainment: An active studio with a vast film, television, and music library. Columbia has so much within it, and yet in the real world, they don't know what to do with what they have. Here, they're not just part of a large international corporation but the cornerstone of an entire entertainment industry that has been around for over a century. This would be an ownership that would unlock its potential.
• Basic Cable Unit: Turner Entertainment (my WBD chip): Turner brings in a massive library of films, shows, and shorts, an active animation studio (Hanna-Barbera), a pair of specialty film labels (New Line and Castle Rock), and the guidance of Ted Turner. The Turner networks initially provide outlets for many of the unit's library of shows and films and expands into news, factual programming, sports, animation, and family entertainment. Turner rightfully earns a place in the company's name.
• Broadcast Television Unit: CBS Corporation: CBS has a legacy broadcaster, a sizable television library (the Viacom/Paramount shows aren't here, but CBS does have ownership in original series at the time of acquisition), and a great news and sports programming division that would complement and strengthen the Turner units. Plus, it would be the catalyst for Columbia Turner to create their own sports network.
• Comics/IP Farm: Marvel Entertainment (my Disney chip): Just reunited what Marvel initially split up, Marvel Entertainment Group and Marvel Productions. Two halves of the same company. Without the harbinger of bankruptcy as well as a stable ownership group that understands the entertainment industry, Marvel becomes a part of a young yet established company that values creativity and the legacy these characters and franchises bring.
• Smaller Production Units: Production I.G (majority stake), Mainframe Productions (majority stake), Viz Media (equity stake), DreamWorks Animation, and WildBrain Studios (equity stake): These units help make the company a more global entity expanding into the Asian, Canadian, and British markets as well as bring in a diverse library of shows, books, and franchises. DreamWorks Animation becomes THE core of the unit's theatrical strategy as it matures beyond stunt-casting and fully embraces storytelling.
• Interactive Entertainment Unit: Electronic Arts: Columbia Turner isn't Sony. They are a pure entertainment company. Columbia Turner buying one of the largest independent producers of video games would put only add to that. With marquee brands, including EA Sports, under its control, with an eye for the evolving gaming industry, EA would continue to be a medium-defining unit for decades.
• Premium Cable Unit: Starz Media: While the pay-tv model seems antiquated today, during the period where Starz is acquired in this scenario, it's in the right place at the right time. Starz would create the backbone for what would become CBS All-Access and help transform the young streamer into a powerhouse that combines a strong media library with fan-favorite brands from Marvel, DreamWorks, New Line, Hanna-Barbera, Viz, Wildbrain, and Cartoon Network with one of the most watched broadcast networks in the world. 
• Music Publishing Unit: BMG: While owning CBS Records would more than suffice, this company wouldn't be complete without BMG, which would also help return the Columbia Records brand to the company and fully reuniting the Columbia legacy brands under a common ownership.

I wouldn't have buy a theme park because managing properties would be more trouble than it's worth. Licensing allows Columbia Turner to earn annual royalties and consult on projects using their franchises and characters, and that's what I'd be doing with Universal Studios. 

They would have exclusive North American themed attraction licensing rights to use Columbia Turner-owned properties, notably Marvel, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, Wildbrain Mainframe, and DreamWorks Animation.

I would admit that using Looney Tunes and DC might seem like a cheat, but consider this: 

Columbia Turner would not own those characters, shows, or shorts. 

Cartoon Network would be an outlet that airs third-party show and movies, just like they do in the real world. And if Warner didn't have an outlet to air them aside from Kids' WB at the time this syndication deal would taken place, why not approach them to air those? It would be advantageous to both companies. 

This was a fun exercise, and it really had my brain working in overdrive a bit. Once again, I'm easily reminded that a company like this doesn't and could never exist. 

And I'm okay with that.