Rivkin at Sun Valley Media Conference

[BoyRaisin2]

The following is part of an article about the annual media conference in Sun Valley Idaho:


- Charles Rivkin, president and CEO of the Jim Henson Co., said Aug. 1 is the day that the Henson family takes back control of the company, which was owned for the past few years by the troubled German media company EM.TV & Merchandising. Rivkin said the Henson family is planning a complete makeover for the firm, which is why he is in Sun Valley right now looking to make strategic alliances. Sources close to the Hensons said that may put to rest speculation that the Henson family only planned to hold the company for a short time before selling it to a larger media outfit like the Walt Disney Co., which had also bid for the home of the Muppets.

 

[BlueFrackle]

Hey,

Thats great news!

Atleast we have a specific date now !


see ya

 

[Luke]

The shareholder meeting is July 23rd so i guess they have another contract signing after that. Rivkin is obviously out scouting to see what he can make of the company now the Hensons have bought it back - i'm not so sure they have these rigid firm plans to keep hold of it forever like he'd want you to believe. He'll probably be given a few years to see what they can do and if they can do better in the current climate than they were doing before EMTV - if it all goes horribly wrong don't look for the Henson kids to lose their investment out of sentimentality, they'll sell if they have to. It's my guess that the 'makeover' includes (at some point) a new animation unit and them branching out even further into 'non muppet' projects in TV & feature films where they can make money from branding and licensing much the same as 'HIT' do in the UK.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Yeah, I don't think Henson will remain indy forever, but it seems the current plan is to stay that way. And if a "current plan" were to include a toon studio and less Muppet projects, though I understand a corporation's need to survive in any way possible, seeing as nearly everything they do involves puppets somehow, it would be a weird precedent. Heck, Farscape is more "Henson" than say, Family Rules (if you remember that show).

But hey, you have to wonder what would happen if Rivkin were to bump into Michael Eisner there.

 

[beaker]

Monuments and empires rise and fall...but I already here the distant echoes of a new Muppet era unfurreling. Rivkin, that visionary and leader, I bet is formulating some sort of ambitious rennovation of the company. I think weve been in the dusk for so long, it may be hard for some to crawl out of the cynicism(and how can ya blame anyone after the last decade?) to see, but I can see a whole brave new world for JHC....with the last decade or so quagmire but a distant memory.

I am thinking the next couple years will really surprise longtime and reaquainted fans...as now that JHC will own JHC again, anything is possible...and I expect the unexpected.

 

[Luke]

I think weve been in the dusk for so long, it may be hard for some to crawl out of the cynicism(and how can ya blame anyone after the last decade?) to see, but I can see a whole brave new world for JHC

To be honest i don't think it has very much to do with cynicism, it's more to do with the fact that JHC is an independant production company and it's hard for lots of them to survive nowdays when there is so little money in Television (not like back in Jim's day) so when you have the situation where an indie actually is seen to specialise in such a unique and niche market as puppetry you are going to run into problems. There's one thing Henson does superbly - Muppets, obviously, and that is their bread & butter which they can fall back on but to get themselves into a position where they are strong and a fairly major player again they'll need to diversify even more, which i think Charlie and Brian (for TV) and Lisa (for Film) have understood and begun implementing over the last few years. All the elements are there for success, they've just gotta pull it together.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

- Charles Rivkin, president and CEO of the Jim Henson Co., said Aug. 1 is the day that the Henson family takes back control of the company, which was owned for the past few years by the troubled German media company EM.TV & Merchandising. Rivkin said the Henson family is planning a complete makeover for the firm, which is why he is in Sun Valley right now looking to make strategic alliances. Sources close to the Hensons said that may put to rest speculation that the Henson family only planned to hold the company for a short time before selling it to a larger media outfit like the Walt Disney Co., which had also bid for the home of the Muppets.

Leave it to Phil (or whoever) to make this short story look like three long paragraphs on the "News" page.

 

[Phillip]

Glad you are reading.