Curiousgorge66 Studios/History

This is the history of Curiousgorge66 Studios.
==2014 - present==
In 2014, Curiousgorge66 Studios was founded.
In the same year, Curiousgorge66 Studios also bought out a few then-independent networks such as GorgeTV and GorgeToons Network, as well as the Welsh production company Jetix Cymru and its O&O channels Disneytoon and Disney XD Wales.
===Rebranding GorgeTV and GorgeToons Network (2015)===
In 2015, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced the new Nickelodeon Family name to replace the GorgeTV/GorgeToons Network brandings. The new branding was rolled out throughout 2015.
Prior to the rebrand, three Nickelodeon programs have aired on GorgeTV.
===Deal with Corus Entertainment (2015)===
In 2015, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced a deal with Corus Entertainment. The deal would allow the launch of the Nickelodeon Family name in Canada. It also ended its initial DHX Media output deal, despite DHX only launching one network under GorgeTV branding (Gorge Network). That network was later sold to Corus due to being brought under Nickelodeon Family branding.
Despite this, DHX will continue to produce animated programming for the studio, mainly the revival of Alien.
===Chrgd on The CW (2015)===
On October 4th, 2015, The CW Sundays (by then known as The CW XD) was shut down.
On October 11th, 2015, Chrgd on The CW was launched with an airing of The Fairly Oddparents.
===Current events (2015 - present)===
Throughout December 2015 and 2016, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Cartoon Network, and History were launched in Welsh regions. Unlike other UK children's channels, most Welsh channels owned by Curiousgorge66 Studios are not subject to Ofcom regulations, not only due to the fact that Jetix Cymru is the licensee for the Welsh counterparts to U.S. networks but because most are in the "entertainment" section of most cable lineups in Wales; Cartoon Network Wales would later discontinue its version of Adult Swim in 2018.
In December 2015, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced their acquisition of CBS Studios and Cartoon Network XD Networks (the latter later being rebranded as "Curiousgorge66 XD Networks" until being folded).
In 2016, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced a deal with Disney to produce more shows for Freeform (and later, Disney XD). They also announced their intent to revive Nickelodeon's former programming that same year.
Also in March 2016, the studio announced that Curiousgorge66 XD Networks would be folded into Curiousgorge66 Networks. The folding took place on March 24th, 2016.
On March 29th, 2016, Curiousgorge66 Studios extended its deal with Viacom (Nickelodeon) by 10 years (though the production contract expired in 2019, with the branding licenses set to expire no later than 2024), in addition to extending its deal with Time Warner (Cartoon Network) by 10 years; both deals were set to expire sometime in 2026. Following Time Warner's acquisition by AT&T, Curiousgorge66 Studios had to re-negotiate its deal with WarnerMedia.
===Deal with DreamWorks Animation (2016)===
In 2016, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced a deal with DreamWorks Animation. The deal allows for DreamWorks Animation programming to air on the Nickelodeon Family networks. By 2018, the deal was terminated due to the launch of Universal Kids.
===Deal with the Charlotte market (2016)===
In 2016, Curiousgorge66 Studios entered a deal with every owner of every station serving the Charlotte market, including Raycom Media (WBTV's owner), Cox Media Group (owners of WSOC and WAXN), Tegna Media (owner of WCNC), Bahakel Communications (WCCB) and Fox Television Stations (owners of their O&Os, WJZY and WMYT). The deal allows for the studio to launch a channel carrying programming from Charlotte's stations of the companies who signed the deal. So far, the only company that owns a Charlotte station that the studio hasn't made a deal with yet is WHKY owner Long Communications.
The channel was never launched, and the deals expired on June 5th, 2016.
===Creation of new Canadian specialty channels (2016)===
In 2016, Curiousgorge66 Studios and Corus Entertainment announced that Corus was gonna launch localized versions of NickFamily Anime, NickFamily Retro (which would have marked the first time NickFamily Retro was used in Canada since the original Canadian NickFamily Retro rebranded as NickFamily Extreme), and Disneytoon Network (the name was previously used for the 1996 - 2014 Welsh channel of the same name, and the animation studio of the same name). All the announced channels were expected to launch in Canada by the end of 2016, but the licenses for the channels were refused by the CRTC.
===Upcoming Disney XD productions (2016)===
In 2016, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced new series for Disney XD, including Hamster Princess, the English dub of Maple Town '16 (the Japanese version will air on Disney Junior on Disney Channel in Japan), Recess: Australia (which will air on Nicktoons Network in Australia and New Zealand; Recess: Australia was previously announced at a conference meeting at Nickelodeon Suites Resort), Phineas and Ferb: Tales from the 2nd Dimension, Little Einsteins '16, Kenny's Fears (the first adult series for the network since the 2016 reboot of the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series), The Otters and the Possums (which will air on Disney Junior in Australia and New Zealand), Phineas Gage: A True Story about Brain Science (the first documentary for the network), How to Prevent a Nuclear Disaster, and reboots of the previous Curiousgorge66 Studios series The 49ers and Sylvanian Popples (the originals being run on The CW and Cartoon Network, respectively); as of July 2016, some of these were scrapped due to Disney XD's schedule.
===Conference at Nickelodeon Suites Resort (2016)===
In March 2016, the studio, inviting Gary Marsh, Philippe Dauman, Jeff Bewkes, and various animators, held a conference meeting at the Nickelodeon Suites Resort. During the conference, series such as Recess: Australia (Nicktoons Network in Australia and Disney XD in the US), Welcome to Lake High School (Disney XD), The Loud House: Escape from the House (Nicktoons), Hard Rock 101 (Disney XD, though the development rights were later given to YTV Family in Canada), The Terrors of Nazism (Disney XD), Popple Princess (Disney XD), Rocko's Advanced Life (Nicktoons), Rocket Power: Extreme Sports (Nicktoons), and Figure it Out 2K16 (Nickelodeon) were announced. All series were expected to premiere in 2016. The conference lasted two days, and Curiousgorge66 Studios paid for everyone who was invited to spend the night at the hotel.
The studio later announced that all of their further conference meetings will be held at the new Nickelodeon Studios (not to be confused with the former Nickelodeon Studios), due to the Nickelodeon Suites Resort's conversion to a Holiday Inn.
In 2018, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced that the announced series that have not already been released have been scrapped for a year due to budgetary issues.
===Planned Curiousgorge66 Studios Convention (2016)===
In April 2016, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced that they were hosting a convention at Nickelodeon Universe. The convention was to have musical acts such as Rod Stewart, Steve Perry, Paul McCartney, Nikki Sixx, Ray Davies, Dave Davies, The Who, Jimmy Page, and Manfred Mann.
In September 2016, the convention was cancelled due to financial issues.
===Acquisition of WNC (2016)===
In 2016, the studio acquired superstation WNC from WNCK-TV. Initially, all superstation transmission was to cease by the end of 2016 due to the network's intended conversion into a Nickelodeon Family network; though, due to the launch of NickFamily Worldwide in May 2016, the studio announced that WNC was to "remain as is; though it's very unlikely newer programming will show up past the end of 2016".
===Streaming services (2016)===
In 2016, the studio announced two new streaming services- Cartoon Network GO, which was to be owned by the studio under license from Time Warner, and Teletoon Zone, which was to be owned by Corus Entertainment, respectively. Both services launched on June 10th, 2016.
===GTV and end of A+E deal (2017)===
In 2017, the studio announced the launch of GTV, a network that airs reruns of their former programming. In preparation, a block was launched on Cartoon Network XD.
That same year, the studio announced that it would not renew its deal with A+E Networks, which expired on January 21st, 2017. The expiration of the deal meant that the studio now has full distribution rights to Fix This Cartoonish House and Storage Wars: NC, and the studio sold its other A&E-produced assets back to A+E Networks. However, in January 2019, the president of Aura Television Productions stated that there was a clause the two parties agreed to that stated that the shared broadcast rights deal would continue until February 2019, after which the deal would have fully expired.
===Proposed Disney buyout (2017)===
In March 2017, it was announced that Disney Channels Worldwide was planning to reach an acquisition deal to acquire Curiousgorge66 Studios for $100 million. The deal would have meant that the studio must cut all ties with most networks not owned by the studio, though this was later modified so that if a series that airs on a network that is neither owned by the studio nor Disney has not ended before the approval of the acquisition, the network would still be able to air the show through no later than 2019. The channels owned by the studio will continue to operate under their current branding under license. The acquisition deal was inspired by the fact that the studio is producing more Disney XD series. However, on the night of March 5th, 2017, Disney announced that it had called off the merger. On January 2nd, 2018, Curiousgorge66 Studios said that the reason why the deal was called off was due to antitrust issues.
===Licensing deal with Nick UK (2017)===
In May 2017, Nickelodeon UK announced that it would buy off the British first-run broadcasting rights to all of the studio's children's programs (excluding co-productions with other British networks, such as Parody Central, which Cartoon Network XD co-produced with CITV). Even if the deal was called off, Nick UK would still hold the British broadcasting rights to series such as B-Daman Unleashed and Rock Starz Unite!, the latter a co-production between Nicktoons UK and Teletoon. The Scottish and Welsh versions of Nickelodeon would not be affected in the deal due to being owned by CG66 Studios under license from Viacom Media Networks.
On August 17th, 2018, the deal was announced to have been called off thanks to an increasing focus on Aura, the NickFamily networks, YTV Family, and the digital market, most prominently Netflix and YouTube.
===Recent developments (2017 - present)===
In August 2017, BronzePlanet and Mystical Entertainment entered talks with CG66 Studios to buy NickFamily Anime and the UK feeds of NickFamily Retro and NickFamily Extreme. Subsequently, Rogers Media entered talks with Corus Entertainment to acquire the license for the Canadian NickFamily Extreme, for a combined $1.46 billion USD. The deal would help fund a second season of WKRP in Cincinnati '17, as well as planned NickFamily Toons and Nicktoons Family original series.
On August 22nd, 2017, while the sale of the remaining channels involved is still pending, NickFamily Anime became the first channel involved in the deal to be sold. The American broadcast rights to Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt were also sold to BronzePlanet at the same time.
On October 8th, 2017, The CW TOO was sold to BronzePlanet and Mystical Entertainment. Curiousgorge66 Studios cited a number of reasons for this, including the channel's initial affiliation deal expiring in October 2017 and the channel not securing an extension of their contract, as well as not having first-run programming in its schedule outside CW network hours. The proceeds from the sale will go towards production of the NickFamily Studios dub of eSports: The Animation.
On November 5th, 2017, three Canadian channels- NickFamily Extreme, Boomerang, and Nicktoons Network- were sold to Rogers Media. The proceeds will go towards the rollout of the Aura branding in Canada, a second season of Lip Sync Battle: Canada, the Time Force Christmas special, and a continuation of the dub of FLCL: Alt.
In November 2017, Aura replaced Vortexx Network on most cable providers; AT&T U-verse continued to carry Vortexx Network until December 31st, 2017, when AuraToons launched. On November 27th, 2017, Axiom Entertainment announced that they intended on buying up the channel.
In early 2018, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced that it wouldn't keep the license to develop Popples series after November 2018; the last three Popples series in production began to end during mid-to-late 2018.
In January 2018, it was announced that CBS Studios' license agreement with CBS was set to expire on January 31st, 2018; Curiousgorge66 Studios has since announced that it would make the studio a subsidiary of NickFamily Studios, move the television studios of Aura into its facility and rename the studio into Aura Television Productions. CBS Studios' operations were moved to a separate facility, at which point the studio was renamed Aura Films.
Max Steel (2017) is notable for being Curiousgorge66 Studios' first distributed television series not originally created for broadcast television to neither air on network or cable television in the UK and Ireland, instead airing in syndication.
Since February 2018, every Nickelodeon Family and Nicktoons Family original series has been made available for streaming on Netflix, with no plans to put them up for streaming on Hulu; however, some series are available for free on the Nickelodeon Family mobile app and YouTube a la YTV Direct.
On February 23rd, 2018, Curiousgorge66 Studios shut down its Ohio offices, citing safety concerns. The same day, the sales for both Nickelodeon XD and Nicktoons XD were finalized. The proceeds would go towards licensing several anime series that has not been released in the United States at the time.
In March 2018, Viacom International Media Networks Europe sued Jetix Cymru for using the TeenNick branding for a French general entertainment channel not specifically aimed at teens; Viacom Europe and Jetix Cymru have since reached an out-of-court settlement, including a rename of the channel as Aura.
On March 11th, 2018, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced that they lost the rights to produce further Harry Potter material.
On March 18th, 2018, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced it was shuttering its Southeast Asia division, and will sell off its operations except those directly owned by Aura International.
On March 21st, 2018, rumors began circulating that Curiousgorge66 Studios was planning to either shut down or sell the U.S. Cartoon Network XD channel, with an announcement rumored once its sole remaining first-run series Parody Central ends its first-run. Acknowledging this, it was announced that Cartoon Network XD Retro would rebrand as Aura Retro should such an announcement be made. Previous sale talks occurred with the Canadian and British feeds. On the same day, the sale for CN XD UK was finalized.
As operations for Cartoon Network XD continue to wind down, Nickelodeon announced on April 2nd, 2018 that it was ending its licensing agreement with the main Cartoon Network XD channel in the United States, in favor of an expanded agreement with Nickelodeon Family Networks, USA. The same day, Jetix Cymru sued Aura Xtreme Networks for not strongly committing to the sale of Vortexx Network, as Google Fiber continues to drop it in certain markets.
On April 7th, 2018, Aura Xtreme Networks filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy, subsequently selling off Vortexx Network to Axiom Entertainment, and the English distribution rights for the anime Shuriken and Pleats (as well as the masters for the Cartoon Network XD dub) to NickFamily Studios. As NickFamily Studios has become a subsidiary of Aura Television Productions months before, Aura Xtreme Networks' liquidation would not affect Shuriken and Pleats' move to Aura in the United States.
In June 2018, it was announced that Curiousgorge66 Studios has extended its deal with WarnerMedia through 2026; the conditions are that Cartoon Network XD's branding deal will expire before or during July 2018, at which point the channel will be rebranded under the "Aura" branding.
In July 2018, Curiousgorge66 Studios began talks with Mystical Entertainment regarding the translation of their productions and licenses into other languages. A deal was reached on July 2nd, 2018. The deal was terminated in October 2018, following Jetix Cymru's lawsuit against Mystical Entertainment. Just a day later, Jetix Cymru announced that it would open up a translation division aimed specifically at anime that had their license dropped by NickFamily Licensing without a dub being produced.
In August 2018, a DVD distribution unit, NickFamily DVD Distribution, opened up to make up for the lack of DVD releases by the studio (prior to opening up the unit, only a select few series from the studio and its subsidiaries were released to DVD, mostly after first broadcasting on TV). DVD releases handled by the unit are limited to Region 1; Region 2-4 DVD releases would instead be handled by Jetix Cymru.
On August 16th, 2018, shortly after Rainbow Puppies was announced, it was announced that Aura Television Productions had entered a ten-series exclusive deal with Netflix, meaning that the next ten series whose digital distribution rights are with Aura Television Productions and are not meant to be first-run on television would have its streaming rights exclusive to Netflix. The deal would end in 2020 due to a decrease in production of their Netflix content. The deal also encompasses the previously-announced Rainbow Puppies, as well as the streaming rights to Recess Crossing: The Animation, Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers, Apocalipsis Inevitable, and Teen Titans: Supercharged, among other series in development.
In October 2018, it was announced that all of TeleAmerica's then-currently-running original series would move to Aura and AuraToons, in favor of newer original series. The same month, in light of the charges against Mystical Entertainment for money laundering and embezzlement, NickFamily began to review their financial statements from 2017 to try and detect any problems from the NickFamily Anime sale and related sell-offs of rerun-only networks. Following this, Jetix Cymru announced their intent to sue Mystical Entertainment; NickFamily Studios and Aura Television Productions are named parties in the suit.
On October 25th, 2018, Nickelodeon Family's British and Scandinavian feeds sued Aura Television Productions for having some of its employees attend the trial between Mystical and Viacom. NickFamily Scandinavia and Oceania have also announced they would rebrand as Aura in November 2018.
In November 2018, Disney decided not to renew its branding license for Disney XD Greenland for undisclosed reasons, which led to the channel announcing its rebrand as a feed of Aura and announcing the sale of Disney Channel Greenland. However, this may be redacted after November 6th, 2018, as Curiousgorge66 Studios' non-Greenlandic divisions, as well as SurgeAnime Broadcasting Worldwide and Corus Entertainment, have sued the channel for money laundering and breach of contract.
On November 13th, 2018, upon learning of AniSeed's low ratings and possibility of staying on being low, Aura International and YTV Family began to jointly bid for the channel and its broadcast rights. They later launched a bid for its parent company AniDigital and announced that if they won the bid, they would sell AniSeed Classics to SurgeAnime Broadcasting Worldwide. However, they have dropped their bid upon learning that V Fuel was also for sale.
It has since been announced that AuraSun would launch on January 25th, 2019.
====Decline (2019)====
On March 6th, 2019, the studio's Hungarian division declared insolvency, and will shutter or sell off Disney XD's standalone Hungarian feed (as well as selling off the Hungarian distribution rights to the Aura Television Productions library). The division stated that piracy, less acquired programming, and changes in the market led them to file for insolvency. Aura Television Productions representatives have stated earlier that the Hungarian division "wasn't making as much money as the other divisions".
On March 7th, 2019, Jetix Cymru has disclosed that a net loss was possible in the wake of Brexit.
On March 9th, 2019, the studio's Dutch division declared insolvency, and the main division has until March 30th, 2019 to find a buyer, or they may be forced to liquidate the entire division. The deadline was later extended to the end of May 2019. A final extension was later granted until the end of July 2019.
Curiousgorge66 Studios' South Korean and Greenlandic divisions were reported to have been headed towards insolvency not too long after the announcement of the Dutch division going insolvent.
Rumors have spread that Curiousgorge66 Studios may spin-off Aura International/Aura Television Productions, including NickFamily Studios, Jetix Cymru, FlareNetworks, and NickFamily Licensing, into its own separate company. Curiousgorge66 Studios has stated that they probably won't do so "until the time is right".
Jetix Cymru has announced on March 25th, 2019 that they would shutter their North American anime licensing unit and transfer their licenses to sister company AuraAnime Licensing by the end of May 2019. Following this was an announcement on April 17th, 2019 that Jetix Cymru would spin-off its UK anime licensing operations into AuraAnime Licensing UK at a not-yet-specified date. On April 30th, 2019, rumors began circulating that the production company as a whole would be rebranded following the sale of Disney XD Wales.
It was reported that Curiousgorge66 Studios, as a whole, was financially struggling and is trying to spin-off its Aura division before the entirety of the company declares bankruptcy.
On May 5th, 2019, Curiousgorge66 Studios announced that it would spin-off all of its Aura-related divisions, including subsidiaries of Aura Television Productions, AuraAnime Licensing Oceania, AuraAnime Licensing US, and Aura Films, before the end of June 2019. Any existing deals between Curiousgorge66 Studios and other companies will be transferred to the spun-off companies until their expiration. Curiousgorge66 Studios' Swedish division, which only operated as a distributor for other networks at the time, filed for bankruptcy (konkurs) around the same time and is trying to look for a buyer.
On May 21st, 2019, Aura Television Productions announced that three channels- Aura, Aura Retro, and Flare (due to the current branding license from Viacom for NickFamily networks not extending to any Pluto TV plans), may have online over-the-air feeds launched on Pluto TV in the future (particularly after Aura Television Productions is spun-off from Curiousgorge66 Studios). Aura has stated that currently, only series from Aura Television Productions (including NickFamily Studios, Jetix Cymru, and AuraAnime Licensing) will be featured- the vast amount of anime on its cable/satellite networks, particularly whose broadcast rights were bought from other licensors (such as Funimation and PonyCan USA), cannot be shown on Pluto TV without first signing distribution deals with the licensors. This plan was scrapped by the end of May 2019 due to YTV Family stating they were interested in a potential deal with bantaview, with most of their programming set to be available on Aura Television Productions' bantaview channel.
In August 2019, Aura Television Productions announced that their production contract with Nickelodeon, which was originally included with the branding license deal, was expiring and that they would refuse to renew the contract. This would cause ChalkZone: Hero with the Chalk to end its run after three years and create rumors that 2024's branding license expiration would also be met with a refusal of renewal.
On August 22nd, 2019, Aura Television Productions announced that their deal with Netflix was nearing its end and that they would discontinue their livestream app NickFamily Stream by the end of April 2020. A new streaming service, Flare+, was also unveiled and would launch in May 2020.
The spin-off of all Aura divisions was completed on September 14th, 2019.
====Further decline and liquidation (2020)====
Since the spin-off of all Aura divisions, several of the studio's former divisions have been sold off or shuttered. In late 2019, Aura mentioned they were looking to sell off the AuraAnime channel, as they considered it an asset that isn't making them money. In January 2020, Aura Oceania temporarily shut down both of Aura's Australian/New Zealand channels while they relocated their headquarters to New Zealand; AuraToons' transmitter was later permanently turned off. Aura International have composed a list of channels they were looking to sell off, TeleAmerica and Aura Retro being among them. Jetix Cymru would be shut down on August 30th, 2020 and its assets absorbed into Aura Television Productions UK; NickFamily Stream was also shut down at the end of April 2020. Meanwhile, Disney XD Wales was put up for sale due to the emergence of Disney+ in the region.
The last two Nickelodeon Family-branded channels outside of the United States, the Welsh feeds of Nickelodeon Family and Nicktoons Family, were merged into Disney Channel Wales, which was then rebranded Aura, on September 1st, 2020.
On September 20th, 2020, Curiousgorge66 Studios, after over a year of dormancy following the spin-off of all Aura assets, announced that it had filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy and would sell off all its remaining assets to other companies.