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Toon Zone
The opinions expressed here do not reflect those of Toon Zone, although if they agree with some of them, that's cool too.
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Studios USA
First Listed: Fall 1999
Studios USA is now Universal Television, but that's right this minute. In 2004, providing that the FTC has no complaints about it, the production company/network owner will become NBC Universal once its owner, Vivendi Universal, sells 80% of their filmed entertainment units, including cable networks USA, Sci-Fi, and Trio (this network, though at the time somewhat superior than the other two networks, became BravoTV.com, a streaming broadband network and replaced with Sleuth, a detective-themed network in 2006) and Universal Pictures to General Electric, parent company of NBC. This means that GE will own 80% of NBC Universal, and Vivendi Universal will own 20% of NBC.
On the animation front, they're a non-factor. Universal Television has little interest in any animation productions, and even with the pending merger, animation pipedreams aren't there. The USA Network isn't interested in showing animation of any kind unless it's a holiday-themed movie for kids, and you'd think that USA with its 20+ year history would try to recapture that prized demo of 18-35 year old men that they had a foothold on until the late 90s. There is a faint glimmer of hope. In Spring 2004, Sci-Fi is premiering Tripping the Rift, a computer-animated science-fiction comedy from Film Roman about an inept commander and his motley crew. In the case of acquiring anime productions or creating new traditionally-animated series and films, they're not on the drawing board at Sci-Fi for the first half of 2004.
In all honesty, there's no need to continue dwelling on Studios USA, um, Universal Television anymore on this site, so I'm rescending its Loser status to Limited Loser Status.
Up next . . . Nickelodeon.
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