American Company Turner Might Buy Lazytown

[LazyPooky]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

This news is already about three weeks old, things are moving forward and I don't know if it's a good thing or not.

LazyTown is sold to the TBS company, an official announcement will come later, probably in the same business newspaper. I heard that Mágnus was asked for explanation by one of the people from the newspaper but didn't say anything yet about it. This is the press release from last month, July 21, 2011

http://www.grapevine.is/News/ReadArticl ... y-Lazytown

American Company Might Buy Lazytown - 21.7.2011

An American broadcast company is offering to buy up Latibær, known to many outside of Iceland as Lazytown.

The show, which has proven itself to be remarkably successful, syndicated by television networks all over the world, is shown in the US as part of the Nickelodeon children's television network. Nickelodeon is owned by Viacom which, among many other assets, also owns MTV.

RÚV now reports that Turner Broadcasting System - which runs, among other networks, CNN, TNT and Cartoon Network - has offered to buy up all shares of Lazytown.

TBS is asking to pay 12 million USD. While this may seem a paltry sum for a television show with as much merchandising as Lazytown does, this is actually 20% higher than the company's total worth, the business newspaper Viðskiptablaðið reports.

One of the conditions for the takeover, sources say, is that Magnús Scheving - Lazytown creator and the actor who plays Sportacus - remain on in his role for at least another three years. These same sources also say that takeover talks will be continuing over the next week, with the expectation that they will end in a deal.

Origin:
http://www.vb.is/frett/64779/
http://www.vb.is/frett/64764/

http://www.dv.is/frettir/2011/7/21/yfir ... midlarisa/


It ends for me as well

[Buzz]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

seems Maggi are not allowed to go on pension ^^...I wonder why this guys are that keen of an dusty TV show that they want pay more than necessary...

[LazyPooky]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

..a dusty TV show...

Who says it's dusty? It's still played in 128 countries around the world and watched by 50 million kids, not to talk about all the merch that is selling around the world. It's more alive than ever.
Only 0,0001% of them are posting on this forum though.. :?

[Buzz]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

..a dusty TV show...

Who says it's dusty? It's still played in 128 countries around the world and watched by 50 million kids, not to talk about all the merch that is selling around the world. It's more alive than ever.
Only 0,0001% of them are posting on this forum though.. :?

you are right...I was just referring to the fact that LTE don't produced new ep's for a long time...

[Ana Muriel]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

It's a pity, a big pity...

Well, we are talking about Warner, the company where Magnús wanted to make the Movie. But it's a pity sell the TV Series too. Well... I saw good TV Series made by Warner, but you know... it's not the same...

If I could, I would like buy the debt :( But for it, I need to win the lottery.

[StingX]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

I cautiously support this.
Glad to hear the talks are nearing a finalization though.

[boredjedi]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

Wait a minute is this an entire buy up of lazytown lock stock and barrel?

has offered to buy up all shares of Lazytown.

I guess that answered my question.

I also find it rather hard to believe that LTE is only worth 20% under 12 million.

[Ana Muriel]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

Wait a minute is this an entire buy up of lazytown lock stock and barrel?

I also find it rather hard to believe that LTE is only worth 20% under 12 million.

Yes, 100%

And well, LTE has a crisis, they need to pay 2'5 USD, so it's understandable the company not worth more.

[boredjedi]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

Yes, 100%

And well, LTE has a crisis, they need to pay 2'5 USD, so it's understandable the company not worth more.

The one major mistake Magnus made was not to release lazytown on Blu ray imo. Instead of dumb schemes like VMD and that dumb VMD player.

[StingX]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

It all boils down to creative control.

If they get bought up and keep about the same creative control that they have now, I would see it as a fantastic deal.
If they get bought up and Turner comes down on them like a sack full of nazi bricks from the east side of the Berlin wall well then that would be a terrible deal.

The most likely, in my opinion, is that it will be pretty close to the former option. I don't have any beef with Turner at all. In fact, they own the majority of the TV that I watch anyway :)

Again, I don't want to back the idea 100% because there is a chance that it could be a disaster, but there is a much better chance that it will be good.

[boredjedi]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

It all boils down to creative control.

Let's hope for the best not like we have any say or control in the matter. If only LTE would have released the HD version on their download episode page instead of those slightly better than dvd quality ones they got on there now. I would have bought and downloaded all the copies in a flash but after viewing the free episode they let you download it just wasn't enough for me to take the hook. Maybe turner will remedy that situation.

Hell if Turner puts Viacom to shame I will be happy as well. :)

[Buzz]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

If they get bought up and Turner comes down on them like a sack full of nazi bricks from the east side of the Berlin wall well then that would be a terrible deal.

I think it's hard for a conservative country as the US to deal with short skirt girls dancing around

in case they would do new ep's I'm afraid that the short pink dress would be their first target

[Ana Muriel]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

I have news, apparently they did the deal, but Magnús still the head of LTE and the Studio still in Iceland.

And the financial difficulties they had been for a long time, they are solved.

[Buzz]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

I have news, apparently they did the deal, but Magnús still the head of LTE and the Studio still in Iceland.

And the financial difficulties they had been for a long time, they are solved.

good news so far...

[Victoria]

Re: LazyTown in the US gone for good?

I'm not optimistic about this news.

Right now Turner owns CNN, HLN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, truTV, Turner Classic Movies. The exciting thing about this is that every one of these channels except for Boomerang has a HD feed.

The alarming thing? LazyTown doesn't seem to be a fit for any of these channels. Boomerang and Cartoon Network are the closest fits but LazyTown is a live action show and those channels are dedicated to animation. And I'm betting if they stick it on one of those two they'll pick Boomerang which is the only Turner network which doesn't have a HD feed, so we're back to square one.

So how about Blu-ray releases? I don't see that happening either. Warner has a poor track record on this and this is the type of show that doesn't normally get a BD release.

Online video sales? Unfortunately, Time Warner's track record is poor here as well. Just try searching on iTunes for popular Cartoon Network shows like Adventure Time - they're for sale, all right. But in standard definition only! ****ing fail. These are HD shows and I watch the Cartoon Network HD versions all the time. So why are you only offering to sell them to me in standard definition, Time Warner? **** you. You can take your crappy SD episodes and shove them up your ass. I'm not paying for stuff that's in worse quality than what I get for free from Cartoon Network HD. Are you guys out of your minds?

So I don't understand what Turner is doing buying up this franchise. They're probably going to end up putting the final nail in LazyTown's coffin. The best thing we could've hoped for was for Disney to buy them up, Hasbro to starting airing LazyTown on The Hub, or PBS to stick them onto their main national kids' programming block on all PBS stations. What we've got is a company that doesn't fit LazyTown at all buying them out of the blue and the series being stuck on some PBS cable spin-off that you can only get the HD feed for if you live in a select few cities with a very specific cable provider. 7 years after the show started and the prospects of getting it in a proper format still seem to be ages away and the chances of anything new being done with the franchise are slim.