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Sony Music Entertainment: Difference between revisions
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CBS Music Video Enterprises was founded in October 1985 as a division of CBS Records, owned at the time by CBS Inc. It was a vehicle for home video distribution of titles related to acts on the various labels owned or distributed by CBS Records, such as Columbia, Epic, Portrait, and CBS Masterworks (now known as Sony Classical). Prior to 1988, all titles produced by CBS Music Video Enterprises were distributed by [[The CBS/Fox Company|CBS/Fox Video]] under the CBS/Fox Video Music banner. On January 5, 1988, Sony Corporation of Japan acquired the CBS Records Group; the CBS Music Video Enterprises division was spun off into its own label afterward. The company began issuing titles on its own in August 1988. On January 1, 1991, Sony, which acquired most international rights to the trademarks of Columbia Records from EMI in 1990, renamed its music division to '''Sony Music Entertainment'''; the video arm subsequently adopted the name Sony Music Video Enterprises.
Although it initially released music-related titles exclusively, it soon began to release titles unrelated to music, particularly after generating three distinct labels that it would operate alongside its own company: Columbia Music Video, Epic Music Video and Sony Kids' Video (which soon merged with Sony Kids' Music to become better known as Sony Wonder). In May 1993, Sony Music signed an agreement with the Viacom-owned MTV Networks, which gave Sony Music the video rights to programs airing on MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon, as well as the music rights to programs airing on the latter network. As a result of the agreement, two video labels were formed: [[Nickelodeon Home Video]] (also known as Nickelodeon Video) and MTV Home Video, and one music label: Nickelodeon Audio. A year later, Viacom acquired Paramount Communications (formerly known as Gulf & Western Industries), which owned Paramount Pictures at the time, but continued to license MTV Networks content to Sony Music for a few years following the acquisition. In July 1996, Viacom terminated the distribution contract for Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. titles that it had with Sony and transferred the rights for the networks' titles to Paramount. Sony would lose
On March 13, 2007, Sony-BMG announced an intention to focus on its core music business. All of its non-music video distribution contracts were canceled or transferred to other companies, such as Genius Entertainment and Vivendi Entertainment. Sony Wonder's operations were transferred to [[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]], which subsequently operated it as a family entertainment label; SPHE renamed Sony Wonder to Sony Pictures Kids Zone in 2020. In 2008, Sony purchased BMG's stake in the music arm, readopting the Sony Music Entertainment name for it.
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