Description
Debmar-Mercury, LLC is a television syndication company. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Lionsgate Television, it was formed from a merger of Debmar Studios and Mercury Entertainment in 2005.
History
Debmar Studios
Debmar-Mercury's history begins on October 31, 1993, when Mort Marcus founded Debmar Studios (named for his wife Debbie), with financial backing from The Walt Disney Company (where he had worked as senior vice president of sales at its Buena Vista Television syndication arm). Debmar signed a deal with CBS to distribute a handful of films and specials, such as My Fair Lady, Gunsmoke telefilms, the first two feature length Peanuts films (A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Snoopy Come Home) and some Dr. Seuss/DFE animated specials. The first iteration was folded into Buena Vista Television after Mort Marcus became president of its syndication arm.
The company was revived in 2002 after its founder Mort Marcus, leaving Miramax Television, with its first rights picked up being that of the animated sitcom South Park for off-net syndication, in association with Mercury Entertainment. Tribune Entertainment was then attached as South Park's advertising sales agent in 2004. This was followed by the syndicated launch of Farscape, in association with Mercury Entertainment in 2004.
Mercury Entertainment
Mercury Entertainment was formed in 1999 by Ira Bernstein after his employer Rysher Entertainment sold its distribution operations to Paramount Domestic Television. The company handled advertising sales of the television show Tracker. In 2000, the company struck a deal with Paramount to co-distribute the series Queen of Swords. In 2001, Bernstein joined Lionsgate Television, temporarily folding Mercury into the company. After Bernstein left Lions Gate, the company was reestablished to partner with Debmar Studios to handle sales of its programming, such as South Park and Farscape.
Debmar-Mercury
In 2005, the two companies were merged into the new studio Debmar-Mercury. The company started its relationship with Lions Gate Entertainment, obtaining the syndication rights to its movie library, followed by the distribution rights to the television show The Dead Zone.
On July 12, 2006, Lions Gate Entertainment acquired Debmar-Mercury as part of its expansion into television distribution. In November 2006, the company was awarded the syndication rights to Family Feud starting in the 2007–2008 season, and industry rumors suggested that the company could also syndicate some classic Goodson-Todman shows. On January 11, 2007, 20th Television picked up ad-sales for select Debmar-Mercury series in syndication.
In April 2019, Debmar-Mercury moved its advertising sales deal from Disney's 20th Television to Viacom's CBS Television Distribution Media Sales.
