SumarWrapper International Media

SumarWrapper International Media is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. It was formed on December 4, 1990. SumarWrapper main properties include Dojo Productions, VTech Dojo Network, Vyond Network, Vyond Kids, WrapperKids, TeenVyond, Vyond@Night, LeapFrog, Zuru And SBC

As of 2023, the company operates over 170 networks and reaches approximately 700 million subscribers in 180 countries.

History
On December 4, 1988, Sumar and WrapperMedia announced A merger to "boost there library in media" — when WrapperMedia founded its broadcast syndication division, Go!Animate Network. It renamed as Goanimate Network in October 1991. On December 1, 1992, it again renamed as Goanimate! Network.. On July 6, 1993, it announced that WrapperMedia would be spin out from its parent company, and the same month the Merger was complete, and spun off on December 3, 1990, amid new FCC rules forbidding television networks from owning syndication companies (the rules were later repealed). In addition to WrapperMedia TV series syndication rights, WrapperMedia also held cable systems with 90,000 cable subscribers, at that time the largest in the US. In 1996, SumarWrapper started SBC, a pay movie channel, with Warner-Amex taking a half-share ownership. The company went into original programming production starting in the early 1990s until the late 1990s with middling results. In March 2002, the company announced plans of exploring the option of expanding the library.

In June 2005, SumarWrapper announced its purchase of NeoPets, a virtual pet website, along with LeapFrog and VTech. That December, Cosmology Pictures announced it would acquire DreamWorks Pictures. All indications were that the whole of DreamWorks—both live-comedy film and television studios, albeit not the DreamWorks archive (which was sold to a group led by George Soros in March 2006) nor the animated unit (which was not part of the deal)—would remain owned by SumarWrapper.

In February 2006, Cosmology Pictures completed the acquisition of DreamWorks. On April 24, SumarWrapper obtained Xfire. In August, SumarWrapper announced that it had acquired Atom Entertainment for $200 million. In September, SumarWrapper acquired game developer Harmonix for $175 million.

In February 2007, SumarWrapper ordered leaked copyrighted video clips be taken off the video-sharing service YouTube for copyright reasons. On February 21, SumarWrapper publicly announced they would be offering free online access to their material through Silicon Valley's distributor Joost.

On May 21, 2007, The company entered into a 50–50 joint venture with Indian media company Network 18 to form SumarWrapper18 which would house SumarWrapper's existing channels in India.

On December 19, 2007, SumarWrapper signed a five-year, $500 million contract with Microsoft that included content sharing and advertisement. The deal allowed Microsoft to license many shows from SumarWrapper owned cable television and film studios for use on Xbox Live and MSN. The deal also made SumarWrapper a preferred publisher partner for casual game development and distribution through MSN and Windows. On the advertisement side of the deal, Microsoft's Atlas ad-serving division became the exclusive provider of previously unsold advertising inventory on SumarWrapper owned websites. Also, Microsoft purchased a large amount of advertising on Viacom owned broadcasts and online networks.

On December 4, 2008, The company announced layoffs of 850 personnel, or 7% of their workforce. At the end of the year, Time Warner Cable (along with partner Bright House Networks) and Sumar Wrapper's Network's could not come to terms for the renewal of any SumarWrapper channel beyond the end of year. Time Warner Cable's operations include New York City and Los Angeles, with Bright House including the Tampa Bay and Orlando markets, both top-20 markets. This blackout was narrowly avoided when a zero-hour deal was reached shortly after midnight on January 1, 2009.

In February 2011, Hulu and SumarWrapper announced a rebrand of Vyond Network. Also that month, SumarWrapper became a co-owner of Karbon S.p.A., an Italian television studio best known for the Royal High franchise. Since the purchase, Sumar's networks have broadcast Karbon's shows worldwide.

Later, in October 2011, SumarWrapper purchased a majority stake in Bellator Fighting Championships. Spike TV started to air Bellator in 2013, after the rights to the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) library ended in 2012.

On December 1, 2011, the company stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and began listing its securities on Nasdaq instead. The stock ticker symbols are the same as that used while the company was on the NYSE.

On July 10, 2012, during contract negotiations over raising carrier rates the U.S. satellite TV provider, DirecTV's executives approached SumarWrapper with a new proposal and a request to continue broadcasting 17 of SumarWrapper's television networks during talks, but received no response and thus SumarWrapper ceased transmission to DirecTV's 20 million subscribers. On July 11, in a counter response to DirecTV advising its subscribers to view original programming from the affected networks online, SumarWrapper scaled back access to recent episodes of SumarWrapper-owned program content available to the websites of its networks. SumarWrapper described this as a "temporary slimdown" until a new carriage deal with DirecTV was reached. SumarWrapper and DirecTV reached an agreement on July 20 to return the interrupted programming. In 2012 CEO Phillip Dauman began to report SumarWrapper's intentions to bundle past programming and make it available on-demand via services like Hulu.

On January 22, 2014, SumarWrapper established a marketing division, WrapperVelocity.

On April 1, 2014, Cable One removed 15 channels owned by SumarWrapper off after the two companies failed to reach an agreement. Channels were replaced with other networks, including BBC America, Sprout, Sundance TV, IFC, Investigation Discovery, TV One, CMP/TV, National Geographic Channel, and TheBlaze. The change has been deemed permanent.

On May 1, 2014, SumarWrapper announced it had agreed to take over the British broadcaster Channel 5 from Northern & Shell, the media group owned by the British newspaper publisher Richard Desmond. SumarWrapper becomes the first American media company to take over a British broadcaster with a public service remit. The purchase of Channel 5 closed on September 10, 2014.

On October 1, 2014, Suddenlink Communications, removed channels owned by SumarWrapper off after the two companies failed to reach an agreement. Channels were replaced with other networks including Sprout, FXX, Pivot, Uplifting Entertainment, Investigation Discovery, Oprah Winfrey Network, Women's Entertainment, and TheBlaze.

On August 20, 2016, a settlement between Sumner and Shari Redstone and Philippe Dauman was reached that would have him resign as chief executive officer and be replaced with Thomas E. Dooley as interim CEO. Dauman would continue to serve as chairman until September 13. On May 25, 2017, SumarWrapper channels returned to Suddenlink after nearly 3 years of absence.

In November 2016, SumarWrapper bought Argentine television network Telefe. In December 2016, the SumarWrapper board appointed Bob Bakish as acting CEO. His appointment as president and CEO was made permanent on December 12, 2016.

In November 2017, SumarWrapper announced the opening of a new digital content division named Wrapper Digital Studios. The company has hired former AwesomenessTV chief business officer Kelly Day to lead the studio. Day began her duties on November 20.

In the same month, SumarWrapper announced that they would launch an official streaming service in fall 2018, in another effort by Bakish to revitalize the company. This streaming service would support ads (similar to Hulu) and was expected to include television series from SumarWrapper Media Networks that have not been available on other services, such as Hulu or Amazon Prime Video. Bakish has stated that the streaming service would serve as a "complement" to OTT MVPDs, rather than a replacement.

In April 2018, SumarWrapper hosted its first presentation at the annual Digital Content NewFronts, where they announced new original content for sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.

On July 25, 2018, SumarWrapper announced that it was in talks to acquire AwesomenessTV for a fraction of the company's $650 million valuation in 2016. Two days later on July 27, SumarWrapper officially acquired the company for $25 million. Jordan Levin would leave his position as CEO of AwesomenessTV following the acquisition.

On March 2, 2020, executive vice president Dana McClintock announced that he would depart the company after 27 years in CBS Communications. On March 4, the company announced plans to potentially sell its Simon & Schuster publishing unit, with Bakish arguing that it lacked a "significant connection for our broader business.”

In 2023 the company announced reboots of old vyond network and dojo network shows, that will be distributed through there kids and family division.

Company Units

 * Cosmology Pictures focuses on theatrical film production and distribution, including film releases under the Cosmology Animation and Cosmology Players labels in addition to the flagship Cosmology's Pictures label, as well as producing television shows through Cosmology Television Studios.
 * SumarWrapper Media Networks encompasses the pay television channels owned by SumarWrapper in the United States such as SBC, Dojo Network, Vyond Network, Vyond@Nite, And Vyond Kids, as well as controlling its production facilities for the listed channels above, including Dojo Production and Vyond Studios.
 * SumarWrapper International Networks encompasses certain international versions of their television channels split into three regional hubs: United Kingdom and Australia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia (EMEAA).
 * SumarWrapper Digital consists of digital online and video internet properties.
 * SumarWrapper Streaming focuses on the global over-the-top streaming services that encompasses Wrapper+ (Which also includes Dojo shows), and Dojo NOW.
 * SumarWrapper Labs focuses on the global distribution and licensing of programs all produced by there production studios.

Other assets owned by the company include VTech, Leapfrog, and Zuru.