Who owns The Avengers?

[Allard]

With ownership changing hands through sales, mergers, bankruptcies, and the rights over the series produced and the rights of the concept (so to make new stuff) being separate, add in that it is owned by some large corporation and complex legislation in several jurisdictions..... one should not be surprised if things like royalties are a mess and fall by the wayside.

[SonofTPMcKenna]

A belated update to my original query.

The Avengers is owned outright by Studio Canal and as an overseas producer, they pass royalties to British Equity Collection Society for onward distribution.

It's a fairly miniscule amount which is distributed on a non pro-rata basis. It could almost be called an 'honorarium', but at least it is something from my late pa's tv afterlife, as I call it. There was though a technical block in the system which meant payments were being held, but that is now being fixed.

Thank you for your contributions which were as enjoyable as ever.

Sephen McKenna

[MikeR]

I do list the various copyright holders to The Avengers chronologically in my book Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots, as and when the changes took place, but you will need to read through it to come across them. Good thing I found this list amongst my files.

The Avengers copyright holder

1961 – 1967 ABC Television
1967 – 1969 Associated British Corporation (Associated British Picture Corporation)
1969 – 1979 EMI
1979 – 1986 Thorn-EMI
1986 – 1986 Alan Bond
1986 – 1987 Cannon Group
1987 – 1990 Weintraub Entertainment
1990 – 1996 Movie Acquisitions Corporation became Lumiere Pictures
1996 – 1998 UGC
1998 – Present StudioCanal

The copyright of The New Avengers is also with StudioCanal.

[mousemeat]

thanks for listing the misc owners of the series...amazing that Cannon group , owned for a short time

[SonofTPMcKenna]

MikeR ... you are one of life's heroes! Thank you!

[Alan]

I do list the various copyright holders to The Avengers chronologically in my book Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots, as and when the changes took place, but you will need to read through it to come across them. Good thing I found this list amongst my files.

The Avengers copyright holder

1961 – 1967 ABC Television
1967 – 1969 Associated British Corporation (Associated British Picture Corporation)
1969 – 1979 EMI
1979 – 1986 Thorn-EMI
1986 – 1986 Alan Bond
1986 – 1987 Cannon Group
1987 – 1990 Weintraub Entertainment
1990 – 1996 Movie Acquisitions Corporation became Lumiere Pictures
1996 – 1998 UGC
1998 – Present StudioCanal

The copyright of The New Avengers is also with StudioCanal.

Scary to think that the StudioCanal takeover seems relatively recent and yet they are celebrating 25 years at the Avengers tiller this year - and are the longest-running owners that the series has ever had, even if you combine the EMI and Thorn-EMI years (17 years).

[Frankymole]

Lumiere and Canal are the only owners who have licensed the series for home video release, I presume (though Weintraub did the Series 2-3 video transfers so they could be shown on TV in the early 90s)?

[dissolute]

There were those Channel 5 Video releases for The New Avengers in 1989 & 1990, they can't have been MAC/Lumiere. I don't know if Weintraub owned TNA as well, I didn't think so.
Whoever owned TNA in the 80s and 90s seemed more interested in VHS releases as there were those odd movie length compendium editions in Spain and Finland.

[mousemeat]

I still think Studio owns the rights at the moment...whether or not, they are taking care of the source material, might be a different story.