Sterling Entertainment Group

Sterling Entertainment Group (formerly United American Video Corporation, and more commonly known as United American Video, UAV Corporation, UAV Home Video or UAV Entertainment) was an American entertainment company founded in 1984 as a small local company originally located in Nashville, Tennessee, then Charlotte, North Carolina starting in 1991. Its headquarters would later relocate to Fort Mill, South Carolina in 1996. UAV was the longtime competitor of GoodTimes Entertainment, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Celebrity Home Video and many other sell through home entertainment companies.

Sterling Entertainment Group
FormerlyUnited American Video Corporation (1984-1998)
United American Video (1991-1998)
UAV Corporation (1991-1998)
UAV Entertainment (1994-1998)
TypeIncentive
IndustryEntertainment
FateBankruptcy
Founded1984
United States
Defunct2006
HeadquartersUnited States
Number of locations
Nashville, Tennessee (1984-1991)
Charlotte, North Carolina (1991-1996)
Fort Mill, South Carolina (1996-2006)
Total assets$25 million

United American Video began in 1984, by 'The Pettus Family'[1] with four employees, 50 public domain titles and 200 professional grade VHS and Betamax recorders. The founders changed the name a few years later to UAV Corporation to better reflect its entry into the prerecorded music and PC software businesses.

In 1992, Sterling Entertainment Group was formed as a separate company in New York, with UAV providing credit, fulfillment and duplication services and distributing its titles. Sterling had acquired VidAmerica's library of some 150 titles and later began releasing a line of MTM Enterprises titles.[2] In 1996, UAV relocated from Charlotte to Fort Mill into a custom built 100,000 square feet headquarters housing manufacturing, distribution and all sales and marketing functions. In late 1998, UAV rebranded its home entertainment division under the Sterling Entertainment Group name. In 1999, UAV added 210,000 additional square feet to its headquarters with over 250 associates. In 2002, UAV was sold to a private equity firm.

On June 14, 2006, the private equity firm lost control of the company to the lenders and UAV filed, laying off over 300 employees, claiming payroll funding had been cut by its lenders. A week later, the total number of layoffs had increased to approximately 400 employees.[3] On June 30, ContentFilm announced its intent to acquire Allumination Filmworks as well as certain assets from UAV Corporation and UAV Holdings. The acquisition was completed in September 2006.[4][5] In 2017, Content Media Corporation was acquired by Kew Media Group;[6] KMG is the current rights holder for most of UAV's original productions, while properties licensed by UAV are now owned by other distributors.

Products

Most of the products produced by Sterling Entertainment Group were VHS and DVD videos of movies, cartoons and TV shows that are in the public domain, original productions and exclusive licenses, as well as a full line of music and computer software. Under their UAV Gold banner, Sterling also distributed original production animated fairy tale adaptations, often released around the time of more popular and widely known theatrical releases by Disney or other major studios. Notable releases featured a 1993 Canadian English re-dub of Osamu Tezuka's Kimba the White Lion (originally shown in Japan in 1965), The Secret of the Hunchback, The Secret of Anastasia, Young Pocahontas, The Secret of Mulan, The Amazing Feats of Young Hercules, Moses: Egypt's Great Prince, and The Adventures of Tarzan. UAV also had the exclusive licenses for the entire MTM Enterprises library which included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Hill Street Blues, The White Shadow and The Andy Griffith Show. They also distributed many public domain episodes of TV shows, including The Beverly Hillbillies, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Lucy Show. Sterling also released DVDs and VHS tapes of DIC Entertainment shows beginning in 2003.

See also

References
  1. Direct Source
  2. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 28 November 1992. pp. 69–. ISSN 0006-2510.
  3. https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1353039/uav-corp-shuts-down-wholesale-operation
  4. http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/allumination-filmworks-newly-acquired-uav-corporation-become-subsidiary-uk-based-contentfilm-706843.htm
  5. http://www.kewmedia.com/news/press_releases/contentfilm_aquisition_of_home_video_assets_and_allumination_film_works.html
  6. https://deadline.com/2017/02/kew-media-group-six-companies-content-media-104-million-line-of-duty-toronto-bbc-1201901690/
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