Echo Bridge Entertainment was an American independent distribution company. It acquired and distributed feature films, scripted and non-scripted series, documentaries, and children's programming for home video, digital and television in the United States and throughout the world. Since its acquisition of Alliance Atlantis International Distribution and recent distribution partnerships with Miramax[1] and ABC Disney/Buena Vista, Echo Bridge Entertainment had a combined portfolio of over 11,000 titles, including Degrassi: The Next Generation (a co-production with DHX Media's Epitome Pictures), until DHX Media acquired the family library in November 2014.
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment, a division of Echo Bridge Entertainment, was founded in 1995 as Platinum Disc Corporation, initially distributed DVDs of low-budget and public domain films. It was named and had its logo inspired from the real Echo Bridge in Massachusetts. In February 2004, Echo Bridge Entertainment was founded at the American Film Market, with the acquisition of the libraries of CineTel Films and PM Entertainment.[2][3] In September 2004, Echo Bridge announced that it would acquire the Green Communications library. [4] In July 2005, Platinum Disc Corporation and Echo Bridge Entertainment merged to form Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.[5] In April 2008, Echo Bridge acquired the international operations, including television distribution rights to Alliance Atlantis library from Goldman Sachs, with the exception of the CSI franchise, which CBS Paramount International Television hold the rights.[6] In 2011, Echo Bridge Entertainment and Miramax made a distribution deal in which Echo Bridge would release 251 films from the Miramax catalog, with the other 550 going to Lionsgate and StudioCanal as Miramax had a similar distribution deal with them.[7] [8] On March 17, 2014, after Echo Bridge lost the distribution rights to the Miramax titles, the Miramax releases all went out of print and any mention of them was removed from their website. Lionsgate later expanded their deal with Miramax to include the 251 films previously released by Echo Bridge until 2020, when Paramount Home Entertainment (which parent company acquired a 49% stake of Miramax in 2019) extended their own deal with Miramax to include those 251 films. In 2014, Echo Bridge sold its family library to DHX Media (now known as WildBrain).[9]
In January 2017, filmmaker and producer Steven Paul purchased the non-family assets of Echo Bridge, which in turn renamed as Echo Bridge Acquisition Corp, later becoming dormant and then folded into SP Distribution in 2021, with the distribution rights to the Echo Bridge/PM/Alliance Atlantis library in turn acquired by the New York City-based distributor and streaming service FilmRise for digital distribution.[10]