DreamWorks Animation Television (abbreviated as DWATV or simply DAT) is an American
animation studio
An animation studio is a company producing animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales or rentals ...
that serves as the television
production arm of
DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...
, itself a subsidiary of
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
and a division of
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
's
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
. Founded in 1996, the entity was formerly named DreamWorks Television Animation. Its first programs from the 1990s and early 2000s used the live-action television logo, and were produced by
DreamWorks Television
DreamWorks Television was an American television distribution and production company based in Universal City, California, that was a division of DreamWorks. It folded into Amblin Television in 2013.
History
DreamWorks Television was formed ...
, before DWATV and its parent company were spun off into an independent company in 2004 and later purchased by NBCUniversal in 2016. In total, the division has released 51 programs, with 9 in development.
History
The company was first formed in 1996 as the animation division of
DreamWorks Television
DreamWorks Television was an American television distribution and production company based in Universal City, California, that was a division of DreamWorks. It folded into Amblin Television in 2013.
History
DreamWorks Television was formed ...
, a subsidiary of the main
DreamWorks DreamWorks may refer to:
* DreamWorks Pictures, an American film production company of Amblin
** DreamWorks Television, an American television production company and division of the film studio
** DreamWorks Records, an American record label and f ...
studio. The TV division was spearheaded by
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and C ...
and
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
and was headed by former
Walt Disney Television Animation
Disney Television Animation (DTVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is the television animation production arm of Disney Branded Television, a sub-division of the Disney Ge ...
executives Gary Krisel and David Simon. DWTA only produced two series: ''
Invasion America
''Invasion America'' is a 1998 American animated science fiction series that aired in the prime time lineup on The WB. Produced by DreamWorks Television Animation (then part of DreamWorks proper, now owned by Universal Studios), the series was ...
'' and ''
Toonsylvania
''Toonsylvania'' is an American animated television series, which ran for two seasons in 1998 on the Fox Kids Network block (usually placed in a block called "The No Yell Motel" that contained other scary kids' shows such as ''Goosebumps'' and ''Ee ...
''. In a move to consolidate, DreamWorks Television Animation was shut down in 1999 as well as the direct-to-video subsidiary merged with the studio's feature animation division, as a way for the company to reorganize its animation divisions to operate under one umbrella.
More than two-thirds of the TV division's 50 employees were transferred to the direct-to-video unit and it was expected that only a minimal number of employees were be affected by the reorganization.
In 2013,
DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...
entered a multi-year content deal with
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
to provide 300 hours of exclusive original content. The intent of the deal was to establish a reliable income for the studio to defray the financial risk of solely relying on the theatrical film market. The next day, DWA completed a five-year licensing agreement with
Super RTL
Super RTL is a German free-to-air television network owned by the RTL Group. The channel originally launched in 1995 as a joint venture between RTL Group predecessor company CLT-UFA and Disney's Buena Vista International Television Investments ...
for the Classic Media library and the Netflix slate. DWA announced executive hiring for its new television group, DreamWorks Animation Television in late July. Former Nickelodeon senior executive Margie Cohn became Head of Television for the group. In September that same year, DreamWorks announced that it has acquired the TV library of London-based
Chapman Entertainment
Chapman Entertainment was a British television production company founded by Keith Chapman and Greg Lynn and based in London, England.
History The 2001-2008 Era
The company was founded by Greg Lynn in London in 2001, together with Keith Chapman a ...
with the programs to distributed through DWA's UK-based TV distribution operation.
In late 2014, DreamWorks Animation launched its own channel called the
DreamWorks Channel
DreamWorks Channel, commonly known as DreamWorks, is a pay television network owned and operated by the NBCUniversal International Networks division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. First launched in Southeast Asia on 1 August 2015, it ex ...
. DreamWorks made a deal with
HBO Asia
HBO Asia is the Asian division of HBO, based out of Singapore. It was originally launched on 1 May 1992 as MovieVision, later rebranding on 1 June 1995 to its current name after being purchased by Home Box Office, Inc. The Singapore-based broad ...
to handle affiliate sales, marketing and technical services, the network will launch in several Asian countries (excluding China and Japan) in the second half of 2015. The channel first premiered in English on August 1, 2015, and a Thai-dubbed channel launched in September 2015. In 2016, DreamWorks Animation Television and its parent company were purchased by
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
through its
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
division.
Television series
Released
Upcoming
Films
Television specials
Notes
See also
*
List of Universal Television programs
*
List of Universal Animation Studios productions
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dreamworks Animation Television
1996 establishments in California
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
American animation studios
Television production companies of the United States
Companies based in Glendale, California
American companies established in 1996
Mass media companies established in 1996
Steven Spielberg
DreamWorks Animation
Universal Pictures
NBCUniversal
2016 mergers and acquisitions
Corporate spin-offs
American corporate subsidiaries
Jeffrey Katzenberg
David Geffen