Power Rangers Return to Saban

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Saban Brands, Los Angeles media billionaire Haim Saban new acquisition vehicle, has bought back the rights to his Power Rangers franchise from Walt Disney Co.

The subsidiary of Saban Capital Group Inc. also signed a separate deal to launch a new Power Rangers TV series on Viacom Inc.’s Nickelodeon cable network. A catalog of 700 older episodes are scheduled to start airing on the Nicktoons channel later this year.

Terms of the deals announced late Wednesday were not disclosed.

Saban, then a writer of songs for children’s TV shows, made his first fortune in the 1990s by adapting for the U.S. market a campy Japanese TV series about teen superheroes who defend the planet from monsters and other fantasy villians. Disney acquired the rights to “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” in 2001 as part of its $2.9 billion purchase of Fox Family Worldwide. Saban and News Corp. co-owned Fox Family.

Over the years, the Power Rangers brand became merchandising powerhouse.

Saban, whose media empire now includes control of the Spanish-language broadcast network Univision, last week launched Saban Brands, to acquire established entertainment and consumer names. He has committed $500 million to the venture.

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