I'm wrestling a bit with media company labels/brands. A well-known example is "The Criterion Collection", which distributes its own discs, and is therefore consistently listed as a media company, but it's also consistently listed as an edition. I think everyone agrees on that. But how does this work for other labels/brands?

I'm currently looking at British distributor Arrow Films. On their website, at https://arrowfilms.com/brands/, they explain that their output is spread over a number of labels: there is, for instance, Arrow Academy ( for "independent, arthouse and world cinema") and Arrow Video (for "the very best in cult and horror films"). I happen to have quite a few of both "Arrow Academy" and "Arrow Video" DVD's and Blu-ray's in my collection. Each of them has either the "Arrow Academy" or "Arrow Video" logo on the front cover, while the back cover for all of them states "Arrow Films" as the distributor.

So how do we deal with that? Are those labels editions or media companies (or both), for our purposes? If a title is released under the "Arrow Academy" or "Arrow Video" banner, with that logo on the front cover, but with the back cover stating it's distributed by "Arrow Films", then how do we handle that? As of yet, different users do it differently. There are several options, but these are the variants I see most:

- "Arrow Academy" or "Arrow Video" could be seen as an edition, while retaining "Arrow Films" as a media company.

- You could refer to the rule that says: "Some companies (using similar but different names) may serve more than one function. List such companies only once, using the name from the logo." Well, the logo says "Arrow Academy" and "Arrow Video", while "Arrow Films" is only listed in the small print on the back cover. So by that reasoning, "Arrow Academy" or "Arrow Video" would be listed as the media company, and "Arrow Films" wouldn't be listed at all.

- You could also refer to the rule that says "List secondary publishers even if the name is similar" as a reason to list both "Arrow Academy" or "Arrow Video" and "Arrow Films" as media companies. However: they're not really "secondary publishers" - as Arrow's website clearly shows, it's just one company, these are just brands.

Any thoughts? I'd like to see some kind of consensus on this, not just for Arrow, but ideally for every label or brand used by any distributor. As soon as they slap some sub-label/brand on the cover, does that always qualify as an edition? Or as a media company? Or both? And if we favor the label/brand as media company, does the parent also retain media company credit, or not?

I hope the company's "About Us" web page (https://arrowfilms.com/about-us/) explains it better.

I think the first option of treating the brand labels as editions titles only and Arrow Film as the distributor would be the correct scenario for their profiles.

Quoting GSyren:

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in many cases Arrow Films is not credited anywhere; not on the packaging or in any video logo. At least that was the case for the Arrow Video titles that I checked.

This was not the case in the examples I studied. All my "Arrow Academy" titles clearly states on the back cover that they're distributed by "Arrow Films" - I was being accurate when I described that in my original post. I believe you when you say have examples where this is not the case, but then this becomes another question - a harder one - but not the question I was asking.

I'm just trying to see the big picture. I have loads of "Should Select" discs distributed by Shout! Factory, and also a number of "Arrow Academy" discs distributed by Arrow Films. The ones in my database (mostly) aren't handled alike, although the "Should Select" seems to be to Shout! Factory exactly what "Arrow Academy" is to Arrow Films: a brand, a range, a label for a certain number of releases. Most of the "Should Select" releases that I own have "Should Select" in the edition field and Shout! Factory as the distributor. That's what ObiKen suggests as well. But most of the profiles for the "Arrow Academy" discs that I own (and that *do* all explicitly state that they're distributed by Arrow Films), do it differently. I don't get that. If we feel that "Should Select" discs are entered correctly like this, then I can't help feeling the same approach should be used for those "Arrow Academy" discs. The principle seems exactly the same.

Note that my question is not about not wanting to do "as credited", because I *do* want that, and in the examples I have they *are* both credited. I'm just asking that if I'm faced with both a "Shout Select" logo and "Distributed by Shout! Factory" in text form, then which of them do we enter in which field? And similarly, if I'm faced with both a "Arrow Academy" logo and "Distributed by Arrow Films" in text form, then which of them do we enter in which field? And I'd like to end up with an approach that can be applied to other distributors and their various brands/labels/ranges as well.

What happens in the situations where companies like Universal, StudioCanal, Manga Entertainment, Tartan Video et al have their name and or logo on the front cover does that then become an edition entry?

T!M is correct, they are company names, not labels for distinguishing between editions of their respective films.

Lets make it absolutely clear, Arrow Films is a legitimate company name, which specialises in the distribution of theatrical films and premium home entertainment products.  Read the fine print on the back cover of the Blu-ray and you will find "Arrow Films" listed as the distributor.

On the other hand, "Arrow Academy", "Arrow Video" are not company names, they are just brand labels that the company, Arrow Films, uses for distinguishing between their premium Blu-ray editions of classic, cult and horror films.

The rules state that Media Companies are:
"The company(ies) responsible for the publishing (creating, assembling and ordering of the DVD/HD/BD content) and/or physical distribution of the media."

If you look at the Arrow Film website, there are no separate sub-divisions of the company listed as "Arrow Academy" or "Arrow Video".

Warner Bros. use "Archive Collection" as a label to distinguish their range of restored films from their library and the Arrow Films company does a similar thing, and I quote from their About Us web page:

"Arrow Films is widely considered to be the global market leader in the Premium Home Entertainment market, fuelled by passionate and expert curation, aligned with state of the art in-house film restoration - resulting in highly sought after bespoke Blu-ray editions of classic, cult and horror films, across its Arrow Video and Arrow Academy branded labels."

I went with the first option. Any other could open a can of worms. If Arrow Academy is allowed as a MC, then should Scream Factory? I know it was added before, but has since been removed IIRC.

Quoting The Movieman:

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Quoting The Movieman:

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I went with the first option. Any other could open a can of worms. If Arrow Academy is allowed as a MC, then should Scream Factory? I know it was added before, but has since been removed IIRC.

To quote myself from nearly 3 years ago, and now that Arrow Video is being submitted and approved in the edition field, does that mean Scream Factory should be in that field as well?

This is my understanding:
Shout! Factory, LLC, is the company name, incorporated 30-Dec-2004, Jurisdiction: Delaware (US).
Scream Factory is a trademark brand name used to distinguish cult classic horror and sci-fi films from other films distributed by the Shout! Factory company. Hence, I would interpret "Scream Factory" as an edition name.

Sounds good.

For those releases with Collector's Edition, should it be "Collector's Edition: Scream Factory" or "Scream Factory: Collector's Edition"?