Fireworks Entertainment

History[edit]

Skyvision Entertainment was originally operating as a division of John Labatt Entertainment Group.^[1]


In 1993, Orion Pictures inked an agreement with Skyvision Entertainment to handle series rights to the RoboCop franchise.^[2] Also that year, it entered into an agreement with Rigel Entertainment for international distribution rights to RoboCop: The Series.^[3] The company, known as Skyvision Partners by then, teamed up with Disney subsidiary Buena Vista Television to produce the first-run syndicated action hour Land's End.^[4][5]


In 1996, Skyvision Entertainment was purchased by Jay Firestone, former employee of Alliance Communications, and rebranded it to Fireworks Entertainment.^[6] The first show under the new name was F/X: The Series, which they acquired from Orion Pictures in 1994.^[7]


Fireworks was acquired by Canwest Global in May 1998, and was later sold to ContentFilm (production company of The Cooler),^[8] a British company, in April 2005. Over the years, Fireworks has amassed a significant catalogue of television shows and movies (under the Fireworks Pictures label). In 2000, Canwest Global had bought out Endemol Entertainment's international distribution arm and merged into Fireworks Entertainment.^[9] Also that year, Canwest had acquired its assets of Western International Communications, and its WIC Entertainment unit, along with its library, would later be folded into Fireworks.^[10]


In 1998, Peter Hoffman's Seven Arts Pictures formed an alliance with Fireworks to start out the Seven Arts International branding.^[11] In 2000, CanWest Films merged with Seven Arts International, another Canwest subsidiary to start the Fireworks Pictures branding to produce theatrical motion pictures.^[12] On October 2, 2001, Pliny Porter was hired as head of production and development for the Fireworks Pictures subsidiary, in order to make an effort to continue producing their own feature films.^[13] In 2005, after ContentFilm had bought out Fireworks, the television library, through its subsidiary Fireworks Distributing Corp. to rival firm Alliance Atlantis.^[14]


On March 14, 2011, Fireworks International was renamed as Content Television and its parent company, ContentFilm was also renamed as Content Media Corporation, which was later acquired by Canadian-based Kew Media Group in 2017 and after Kew Media's liquidation and collapse in 2020, its library was later acquired by Quiver Distribution via its Quiver Entertainment division.^[15][16][17]