Liberty to create Liberation

Plans to release TV, music, DVD releases

By Scott Hettrick -- Video Business, 1/13/2006

JAN. 13 | I.R.S. Records co-founder and former MCA Records president Jay Boberg has purchased Liberty International Entertainment and created a new video distribution company called Liberation Entertainment.

With the financial backing of Clarity Partners LP, Liberation bought Liberty’s library of 250 films and 2,400 hours of TV shows, including music programs such as PBS’s Sound Stage show and such classic TV series as Daniel Boone and Peter Gunn.

Former Liberty chairman Irv Holender is vice chairman of Liberation, which has signed an exclusive output deal with Regent Releasing for its theatrical films and has licensed TV programs from Here! Network, targeting the gay and lesbian audience. The company also is in negotiations to purchase several other libraries and will release its own original longform music DVDs beginning in March.

Boberg said that most of the company’s DVDs will be released through the Weinstein Co.’s Genius Products. Liberation’s Los Angeles-based staff of 11 is expected to grow to 16 to 20, including an exec to be hired to supervise DVD sales and marketing.

“We’ll make alliances with different partners to outsource a lot of heavy overhead aspects such as sales and distribution, but we’ll still control marketing,” Boberg said.

Others on the new Liberation management team include chief operating officer Sam Mandel, who joins from Time Warner Global Marketing, where he was senior VP entertainment business development; Aldy Damian as executive VP; and Stan Justice, who brings his experience in TV syndication sales at Paramount Television to Liberation, where he will be senior VP domestic distribution.