Madman Entertainment

Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd.
Private
Industry Entertainment
Founded 1996 (1996)
Founders Tim Anderson
Paul Wiegard
Headquarters Richmond, Victoria, Australia
Area served
 Australia, New Zealand, and East Timor
Key people
 Brett Chenoweth (Chairman)
Tim Anderson (President & CEO)
Paul Wiegard
Adrian Mackenzie
Charbel Nader
Products DVD, Blu-ray, Digital Video, Manga, Video on demand
Owner Tim Anderson
Paul Wiegard
Aniplex (minority interest)
Website www.madman.com.au

Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd. is an Australian company that distributes Australian and foreign films as well as television series, children's content, sports, Japanese anime and manga, graphic novels in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the rest of Australasia. Madman is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia. It employs approx 100 people and has an annual turnover of around A$50 million.[1] Its headquarters is in Richmond, Victoria.[2][3]

History

Madman launched in 1996 solely as an anime distribution company, but has since expanded. They manage the distribution of live-action titles through their labels Madman Films, Directors Suite, Madman Sports, Madman Laughs, Madman Television, Bollywood Masala and Eastern Eye and also children's entertainment through their Planet Mad and Mad4Kids labels. Madman also has a theatrical distribution arm called Madman Cinema. In addition, the company distributes programmes acquired or produced by Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (and newly, titles from WWE in Australasia, thus replacing Shock Entertainment[4]) on DVD and Blu-ray.[5]

At the 2008 Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Madman announced plans to explore new distribution methods. The company now offers online streaming of selected anime episodes, beginning with the first episode of School Rumble.[6] Madman now has a sub-page, Madman Screening Room, dedicated to video streaming.[7] Madman has also begun releasing Blu-ray Disc titles, starting with The Transformers: The Movie in June 2009.[8][9] On 1 June 2009, Madman Entertainment released an English adaption of Tamagotchi: The Movie, a 2007 film based on the Tamagotchi digital pets from Bandai and WiZ. Madman also intended to dub the film's sequel, Tamagotchi: Happiest Story in the Universe!, but the dub was cancelled for unknown reasons.

In April 2008, the company announced a collaboration with British company Warp Films. Warp and Madman plan to make "at least two films together over the next three years, starting with Tyrannosaur."[10]

In early 2016, Madman announced Madman Anime Festival, an annual anime convention to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The convention was held in Melbourne on 3–4 September of that year.[11] Madman later announced plans to expand the convention to Perth and Brisbane in 2017. The convention also became the host for the preliminary rounds of the Madman National Cosplay Championship in Perth and Brisbane.

On 17 February 2018, Madman co-founder & CEO Tim Anderson confirmed with Anime News Network that on 15 November 2017, Sony Music Entertainment Japan subsidiary Aniplex became a minority shareholder in the company and was issued an undisclosed number of shares.[12]

AnimeLab

AnimeLab is a video on demand (VOD) service that provides online streaming of anime series and simulcasts direct from Japan.[13][14]

AnimeLab originally launched 28 May 2014 in Australia and New Zealand as a Madman Entertainment skunkworks project with 50 series and 700 episodes. It is the stand-alone successor to Madman's Screening Room.[15] AnimeLab now has over 450,000 signed up users in Australia and New Zealand, featuring over 6,000 episodes across 260 titles.

Shows on the AnimeLab website can be watched using a modern web browser on a range of platforms, as it uses an HTML 5-based video player.[16] AnimeLab also has an iOS app [17][18] and Android app [19] which allow users to stream anime on their mobile devices and tablets.

The AnimeLab app also launched on the Playstation 3 and 4 on 19 October 2015,[20] the following year it launched on Xbox One on 5 December.,[21] however lacking the Kinect voice functionality. Madman has confirmed they're looking into implementing Kinect support.[22]

In AnimeLab's live-stream panel at Supanova in Perth, two AnimeLab staff members, Jess McCallum and Christine Busby discussed their new mascot 'Violet' who is named after Australian scientist Ruby Payne-Scott and has the personality of Akiho Senomiya from Robotics;Notes mixed with Kurisu Makise from Steins;Gate.[23]

DocPlay

On 1 December 2016 Madman launched DocPlay, a dedicated documentary streaming service.[24] The service has over 130 titles on it at launch, with it currently only available to view via web-browser, Android, Chromecast and iOS.[25] Unlike Animelab, the service is primarily subscription based with only a handful of titles available for free to watch.[26] The service was partly funded by Screen Australia due to the platform's ability to share revenue with local producers.[27]

Assets

Sponsorship

As of 2016, Madman Entertainment, is the sponsor for New Zealand and Australian Manga/Anime events.[29][30] And their own Madman Anime Festival for Melbourne in Australia.[31]

References

  1. ↑ "About Us". Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Contact Information." Madman Entertainment. Retrieved on 29 March 2010.
  3. ↑ "Map of the Ward Boundaries Archived 2 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine.." City of Yarra. Retrieved on 29 March 2010.
  4. ↑ "Madman Entertainment Becomes the New Distributor for WWE in Australasia". Capsule Computers.
  5. ↑ "Madman Entertainment - Anime & Pop Culture Store". Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  6. ↑ "Madman News from Supanova Expo". Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  7. ↑ http://www.madman.com.au/videos/home
  8. ↑ "Madman Entertainment". Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "Blu-Ray Anime, Films, TV and more from Madman Entertainment". Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Madman Entertainment - Anime & Pop Culture Store". Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  11. ↑ "Madman Entertainment Announces Madman Anime Festival 2016". Anime News Network. 23 March 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  12. ↑ "Aniplex Invests in Australia's Madman Anime Distribution Company". Anime News Network.
  13. ↑ Gizmodo - AnimeLab Is How You Do A Streaming Video Service Properly
  14. ↑ Australia's Premiere Anime Streaming Site
  15. ↑ AnimeLab
  16. ↑ Digitally Downloaded - Madman's AnimeLab is going to be one of the best streaming services in Australia
  17. ↑ ANN - AnimeLab launches iOS App
  18. ↑ Gizmodo - AnimeLab Now Has A (Great) App For iPad And iPhone
  19. ↑ ANN - AnimeLab launches Android App
  20. ↑ "AnimeLab Is Now Available On PlayStation". Madman Entertainment. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  21. ↑ "AnimeLab is Now Available On Xbox One". Madman Entertainment. 14 December 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  22. ↑ "Hey Mark! Our dev team will be looking into this this week. We'll let you know how they go". Facebook. 19 December 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  23. ↑ AnimeLab panel
  24. ↑ "About page". Madman Entertainment. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  25. ↑ "Introducing DocPlay". Madman Entertainment. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  26. ↑ "Free titles". Madman Entertainment. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  27. ↑ "Screen Australia names recipients of $2.5 million in Enterprise funding". Inside Film. 29 November 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  28. ↑ "Madman Media acquires Garage Entertainment". Mumbrella.
  29. ↑ http://www.armageddonexpo.com Armageddon Expo NZ
  30. ↑ https://www.avcon.org.au/sponsors/
  31. ↑ Entertainment, Madman. "Madman Anime Festival - September 3rd & 4th 2016 - Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre". Retrieved 26 July 2016.
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