Styhon Entertainment

Styhon Entertainment Partners, Inc. (trading as Styhon Entertainment) is a Finnish-owned American vertically integrated media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Founded by Howard Styhon in 1993 and sold to Kasperi Salovaara (who also owns Zoop Music Entertainment) in January 2021, it focuses on foreign and independent films and has produced and distributed various commercially successful films.

It is one of the largest international sales and film distribution companies by library and availability. They're also a leading international broadcaster and leading producer of children's entertainment and factual content worldwide.

Under the Styhon Media Networks division, it also operates a group of digital cable and satellite channels, which broadcast a mix of original programs and the company's syndicated content.

Before the sale to Salovaara, the company's majority stake was split between Access Industries and Howard Styhon.

They distribute Brittania Pictures's movies internationally, while Brittania distributes their films in Spain, Portugal and the UK.

Company overview
Styhon Entertainment is a vertically integrated content powerhouse, filled to the brim with established creators worldwide and high quality IPs, including but not limited to Ace Ventura, Mythbusters, Hereditary, The Dark Crystal and Adventure Time. It also houses a wide distribution network for films and television; two film festivals (Sundance and Tribeca); as well as three leading MCNs: Styhon Digital Studios, Scalelab and Studio71. It was founded by Howard Styhon in 1993 with backing from Warner Bros. Pictures. Since then, he has built a large library of thousands of movies through acquisitions and critically acclaimed productions, which have allowed the company to expand beyond film production.

Styhon Filmed Entertainment Group includes Styhon International, PalmStar, Constantin Film, FilmNation Entertainment, The Jim Henson Company and IFC Films. It also includes one of the most infamous anime licensors in North America - Sentai Filmworks -, one of the largest young adult and kids books publishers in the world - Scholastic - and one of the world's largest movie library and rights holding companies - Revolution Studios. Styhon Filmed Entertainment Group also owns several cinema chains, over a dozen studios worldwide; such as Styhon Studios Mol, Styhon Studios Iskandar and Styhon Studios Prague; as well as visual effects companies Method Studios and BUF, audio company Dolby and equipment manufacturing and rental giant Panavision, to service independent films and also international screenings of blockbuster films.

Styhon Television Group - the radio, TV and internet division - is home to AMC, Univision, Discovery, Frederator Studios, Teletoon, ProSieben, M6, Westwood One and also numerous internet companies such as Styhon Digital Studios and German's top Internet ecommerce website wow.de. They also own stakes in Funny or Die and netzine company Group Nine Media. Through Styhon Television Studios, they also own Morgan Creek Television, and Sailor Media Group, responsible for such formats as The Farm, Married at First Sight, Say Yes to the Dress, Orphan Black, Big Comfy Couch, Lip Sync Battle, Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares.

Styhon Ventures is Styhon's investments division and an incubator for future utilities such as new technologies, new frameworks and new media. They own Participant - a company dedicated to content which has impact in our popular culture and society as a whole, Creative Artists Agency - one of the leading talent agencies in the world, and a minority stake in WWE - a world leader in wrestling entertainment.

Regency Enterprises is an American entertainment company formed by Arnon Milchan in 1982. They own a library of over 100 titles and distributes its films worldwide. In addition to being one of the co-heads of production at Styhon, Yariv Milchan also runs day-to-day operations in Regency. The company includes New Regency, established through an ongoing partnership with 20th Century Studios.

Viridian Group is Styhon's in-house advertising division and home to known advertising agencies such as TWBA, BBDO, CARAT, Mullenlowe, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and McCann. Their expertise and history crosses generations and borders; and has affected people's lifestyles positively - from having people sing on the top of the hill with Coke bottles in their hands to raising awareness about benefits of milk with quirky short films. They're one of three world-leading advertising companies, next to WPP and Publicis.

Our partners include A&E, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, A24, Channel 4, Sony Pictures, Cartoon Network, The Walt Disney Company, Nexstar Media Group, Vice Media, Buzzfeed, Google, Amazon Studios, Netflix, TF1, CBS, Coca-Cola and Lionsgate.



Styhon Brothers Entertainment
In 1986, after the dissolution of Producers Sales Organization, brothers Howard and Ronald Styhon started a production company, Styhon Brothers Entertainment.

In 1988, Styhon Brothers Entertainment struck "slate financing" deals with New World Pictures and, in 1990, Cannon Group; they were one of, if not the first, of their kind; agreeing to finance a number of their original productions.

In 1992, Styhon Brothers ran into some financial difficulties, but quickly recovered.

Styhon Entertainment
In 1993, Howard Styhon left Styhon Brothers to found his own production company Styhon Entertainment, and immediately struck a deal with Warner Bros.

In 1998, Styhon Entertainment, Warner Bros. and Canal+ helped Steven Reuther found his own production company Bel-Air Entertainment. It sadly went bankrupt around 2002 and it was integrated back into Styhon.

In 2018, Styhon Enterprises bought out The Weinstein Company/Lantern Entertainment's home entertainment operations and subsequently rebranded them into Styhon Home Entertainment, which soon became Styhon Home Entertainment Group in 2020.

In 2019, Styhon Entertainment expanded drastically after a merger with Morgan Creek Entertainment, Revolution Studios, Red Granite International, Lightyear Entertainment, HALO 8 Entertainment, The Film Arcade, Excel Entertainment Group, and Hannover House, and acquisition of most assets from Ultra V Holdings, owner of Relativity Media.

With these changes, Styhon Entertainment became the latest mini-major film studio, and a member of the Motion Picture Association. They also recruited Stephen J. Anderson, Mark Johnson, Jordan Kerner and Gavin Polone as part of their management board.

On November 30, 2019, Styhon Entertainment purchased a site in Syracuse, New York with intentions to build a facility known as the Central New York Film Hub.

In January 2020, Styhon Entertainment acquired distribution offices of Brittania Pictures in Africa (including South Africa and Egypt), Asia (including Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Russia and Hong Kong) and Latin America (including Brazil). The deal also included Afpak Films - its distribution arm in the Middle East - and majority-owned CX7 Entertainment - which was a spin-off of Brittania Pictures's distribution offices in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Moldovia, Ukraine and ex-Yugoslavia countries.

They also acquired Brittania Pictures's distribution offices in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Ireland; the first two were closed shortly afterwards, with the latter two being merged into Styhon's Fishfilm GmbH and newly-acquired Element Pictures respectively. They closed Brittania Pictures Japan, in favor of establishing a distribution deal with Longride; offices in Australia were merged into Australian Filmgroup, though select films are set to be co-distributed by Roadshow Films.

They also acquired Metropolitan Filmexport and Davis Films from the Hadida brothers, and Brittania Pictures France, and moved the two companies under Cinéa. Brittania France's distribution deals outside of Brittania, and "non-film import operations" of Metropolitan, will move to Cinéa. Brittania Pictures's Belgium and Luxembourg operations were merged into Cinéa Belux, which also moved under Cinéa.

November 2020 acquisitions
Led by Howard Styhon and his son Chance Styhon, who is also the current CEO of Styhon Entertainment, the acquisition spree was commenced, with the goal of all deals being them closing on the month of November 2020. They expect to break even after these acquistions within 5 years.

Styhon Entertainment purchased Omnicom, Interpublic Group of Companies and Dentsu (except for their Japanese operations), and merged them to form Veridian Group. The former Dentsu and Interpublic assets make up the Hello Media side, while the former Omnicom assets make up the Veridian Communications Group - both are planned to be merged in the near future.

Styhon Entertainment acquired Groupe M6, Highlight Communications AG, ProSieben.Sat1 Group, AMC Networks, PalmStar Media, Andrew McMeel Universal, Ion Media, Cumulus Media, Weigel Broadcasting, Beyond International, Walden Media, Corus Entertainment, Blue Ant Media, Really Useful Group, Discovery Inc, Studio 100, FilmNation Entertainment, Scholastic, WildBrain, Madman Entertainment, mm2 Entertainment, Boat Rocker Media and Univision Communications to boost their publishing, international distribution, sports, live entertainment and television businesses. They also acquired the Asia Pacific and South American operations of Fremantle and ELAN Group's media and entertainment divisions. Gulf Film became part of Afpak Motion Pictures, while ELAN Media became part of Viridian Group.

They acquired Dolby, Panavision, NSR Scandinavia Group, Method Studios and Ymagis Group to boost their post-production and cinema services operations; and also acquired BroadbandTV, RTL Group's MCN operations, Deluxe Entertainment Services, Nordic Entertainment Group, rest of the former Defy Media's assets, Mixed Media Group and Wow Unlimited Media to boost their digital media and licensing operations.

To increase their presence in live entertainment industries, Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca Enterprises (with Tribeca Film Festival) were acquired, with Sundance Institute and Tribeca Film Institute becoming part of Styhon Golden Screen Ventures. They also acquired 50% of Live Nation Entertainment.

They also acquired Dark Horse Comics and game studios NCSoft, Jam City, Gaijin Entertainment, Plarium, Abstraction Games, BlitWorks, Wargaming and Pearl Abyss.

Cinedigm
TBA

Embracer Group
TBA

Entertainment Studios
Howard Styhon and Byron Allen proposed a merger between Styhon Entertainment and Entertainment Studios to create one of the largest African-American-led media companies in North America. The deal was called off in December 2020 by Chance Styhon, when new terms of the deal (following Styhon Entertainment's sudden expansion) caused conflicts with Entertainment Studios's management.

Brittania Pictures
While Styhon Entertainment owns Brittania's international operations (outside Iberia and the UK), Brittania Pictures turned down the offer to fully merge into Styhon Entertainment.

Debt controversy
In 2018, Styhon Television's international distribution arm Styhon International Television filed for bankruptcy, due to immense debt. The debt was actually inherited actively from other divisions within Styhon Entertainment. They were soon investigated by FTC, yet they weren't successful enough to sue Styhon for these practices.

Due to this, the group of companies had to be sold, to investor Kasperi Salovaara for $8.5 billion USD, including the forgiven debt. Commenting on the acquisition, Salovaara said "it would've cost almost a dollar, but [Styhon] didn't want it to wither into bankruptcy". Styhon Entertainment's Television, Studios and Ventures divisions as well as Styhon International have been profitable ever since.

The Launchpad
Styhon Entertainment's group of companies follow a common ruleset, though modified to fit each company's corporate culture; however, most common between all companies is the "launchpad" motive; to kickstart careers in live entertainment, film and television. They have offered internships every season, offering training for upcoming workers and consulting for productions.

Philantrophy
Styhon Entertainment used to be affiliated with Autism Speaks; however, due to internal conflicts, they have since ended ties and Styhon now has a close relationship with ASAN. They also work closely with GLAAD.

These ties to organizations are what Howard Styhon regards as "representation research"; including how a demographic can be represented in a harmless way and in a way that would not disrupt films or series episodes. Their inclusion of minorities in their productions are praised for, among other reasons, subtlety and maturity in handling "taboo topics".

Ownership

 * Salovaara Ventures Group (majority stake)
 * Minority stakes (each >2%):
 * ELAN Group
 * BNP Paribas
 * Vine Alternative Investments
 * Thunderbird Entertainment
 * Advance Publications
 * Dolan family
 * RTL Group
 * Mediaset
 * ASM Global

Logo
The logo starts off with a lake, as a rock appears, skipping over the water. The camera follows it through the river's curves as it pans up and then shows the creek in the form of the letter "S". After zooming out, it fades to the Styhon Entertainment logo made of silver.

For newer prints of Revolution and Jim Henson titles, the Morgan Creek theme was used.

The print logo and the motion logo seen in television shows and pre-2022 films include the Styhon Entertainment name, but since the release of the trailer for the American remake of I Saw the Devil (2022), the logo only features the Styhon S.

Distributed by Styhon International
Vertical Entertainment and AMBI Group's films are to be distributed outside North America and Europe, while films by Nu Image, A24, Sierra/Affinity, Highland Film Group and Neon are distributed only in non-English-speaking markets (with a slight exception on A24's films which will also be distributed within all of the Oceania territories, especially Australia and New Zealand).

Amblin Partners films would be covered by Styhon International in areas and countries where eOne or Universal Pictures don't have distribution operations. Styhon acquired international sales rights to all Studio Ghibli works from Wild Bunch AG in November 2020.

Brittania Pictures's films will be distributed by Styhon outside Canada, United States, Spain, Portugal and the UK; where, within the latter three countries, Brittania distributes Styhon films instead.

International distribution of Styhon's films

 * Columbia Pictures (the Philippines, 2020-present)
 * CJ Entertainment (South Korea, 2020-present)
 * Longride (Japan, 2020-present)
 * Brittania Pictures (UK, Spain and Portugal, 2021-present)
 * Svensk Filmindustri (Nordic countries, 2021-present) - co-distribution deal
 * Eagle Pictures (Italy, 2021-present) - co-distribution deal

In development
Styhon Entertainment, Universal Pictures and Pathé announced the development of an American remake of 99 Francs, with the working title of "The Burnout", set to start pre-production in March 2021. Styhon Entertainment is also developing a remake of the 1970 British film Performance.