Debmar-Mercury

Debmar-Mercury is a television syndication company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment.

History

Debmar-Mercury was formed from a merger of Debmar Studios and Mercury Entertainment in 2006. On July 12, 2006, Lions Gate Entertainment expanded into television distribution and acquired Debmar-Mercury.[1][2] In November 2006, the company was awarded the syndication rights to Family Feud and industry rumors suggest that the company could also syndicate some classic Goodson-Todman shows.[3] Its logo and mascot is a jaguar jumping out of a filmstrip. On January 11, 2007, 20th Television picked up ad-sales for Debmar-Mercury series in syndication.[4][5]

The 10-90 Model

Debmar-Mercury is known for pioneering a unique syndication model, known as the "10-90" approach, where the syndicator sells the program to a cable station for a 10-episode test run. If those 10 episodes achieve acceptable ratings, the show would be renewed for an additional 90 episodes. This allows the show to have a profitable life in off-network syndication, in which 100 episodes is considered the desired number for a show to begin entering daily reruns.[6] This unique broadcast syndication model for television was used with the TBS and OWN cable television networks for multiple sitcoms created by the multihyphenate Tyler Perry,[7] and for multiple series with the FX cable television network, featuring the likes of actors Charlie Sheen[8] and Kelsey Grammer and comedians Martin Lawrence, Kevin James[9] and George Lopez.[10]

So far, three shows have failed to reach the ratings threshold for a 90-episode: Comedy Central's Big Lake[11] (2010), which was produced by Funny or Die co-creators Will Ferrell and Adam McKay,[12] and the 2014 FX sitcoms Saint George and Partners.

Partial list of series

This is the list of series distributed by Debmar-Mercury. Aside the Lionsgate libraries and the Revolution Studios film library, Debmar-Mercury distributes from the following:

Note: Some shows denoted with an asterisk (*) are distributed in conjunction with 20th Television for ad-sales.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lionsgate Expands Into Television Syndication Business, Acquires Debmar-Mercury
  2. ↑ Film studio Lionsgate acquires television distributor
  3. ↑ Jim Benson. "Fremantle Awards Family Feud to Debmar-Mercury".
  4. ↑ "TV News Check" 20th Century TV to handle ad sales of both Debmar-Mercury shows for 2007 season. tvnewscheck.com Retrieved on March 13, 2012
  5. ↑ Elizabeth Guider "Variety" 'Dead Zone' headed to syndication variety.com January 11, 2007, Retrieved on January 29, 2013
  6. ↑ http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118055951/
  7. ↑ http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/own-picks-up-tyler-perrys-sitcom-for-better-or-worse-orders-third-season/
  8. ↑ http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/fx-news-season-10-of-sunny-very-likely-anger-management-to-air-45-eps-a-year/
  9. ↑ http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/kevin-james-is-working-on-a-10-90-sitcom.html
  10. ↑ http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/fx-picks-up-new-george-lopez-sitcom-in-1090-deal-with-lionsgatedebmar-mercury/
  11. ↑ http://variety.com/2012/tv/news/for-debmar-mercury-10-90-math-adds-up-1118051090/
  12. ↑ http://www.vulture.com/2010/08/so_is_the_new_will_ferrell-pro.html
  13. ↑ http://www.eonline.com/news/47952/oh-my-god-south-park-syndicated

External links

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