Los Angeles -- Saban Entertainment is officially earmarking
its library of kids' programming and original productions for Fox Family Channel and
the Fox Kids broadcast network, officials confirmed last week.
As a result, eight-year-old Saban Domestic Distribution
will refocus to concentrate on distributing movies and long-form projects, Saban president
and CEO Mel Woods said in a prepared statement.
Saban is now distributing four syndicated series to U.S.
broadcasters. One of them, the educational weekly The All New Captain Kangaroo, is
set to be on Fox Family's lineup when it kicks off this summer.
'With the creation of Fox Kids Worldwide and the
acquisition of The Family Channel, we have restructured our energies to support the
company's broadcast and cable businesses,' Woods said. 'While our
children's series will no longer be made available through our domestic-syndication
division, we will continue to distribute the company's movies and long-forms via
Saban Domestic Distribution.'
Peter Schmid, executive vice president at Saban Domestic
Distribution, will remain with the company and add cable sales to his duties, officials
said.
Fox Kids chairman Haim Saban is scheduled to appear in
court this week to testify at the hearing on MTV Networks' bid to block Rich Cronin,
ex-head of Nick at Nite's TV Land, from joining Fox Family as president until July 1.
MTV wants to be sure that Cronin can't appear at Fox Family's Jan. 13 kids'
upfront presentation, among other events.
