Braveworld Video was a UK video distribution company founded by ex-WEA Records and Warner Home Video Managing Director Mike Heap (1944–2019).[1] It was originally established in March 1985, initially with sales and distribution through IVS Video UK (which shortly became Castle Pictures).[2] After the IVS tie-up ended, the company became known as Braveworld Limited in approximately 1987.
Braveworld was owned by Prestwich Holdings, Plc (a transatlantic investment company whose larger portfolio included US distributor Prism Video and Bush/Alba Electronics).[3]
Record (and later special interest/music video) label Legend Music Group was a misfired short-lived Braveworld side project,[4] as was Sheer Entertainment (a rental video label which released a handful of direct-to-video genre titles in 1987, notably Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou[5]).
Another of Prestwich Holdings's video companies was The Video Collection[6](a retail video label founded in collaboration with Woolworths which was the UK's most successful distributor in the 1980s).[7] As such, Braveworld and The Video Collection were 'sister' labels, with Braveworld's original purpose to acquire and release cinema and rental titles, and Video Collection a retail feature film and special interest title distributor which relied heavily on re-releasing classic films.
Accordingly, many of Braveworld's titles were released on 'sell-through' video under the Video Collection name.[8] Braveworld was eventually dissolved via a compulsory liquidation in 1999 after years of heavy losses; its final videos were released in mid-1994.
The Video Collection, however, lived on (through various owners including, in the early 2000s, a joint-venture with BBC Video as 2|Entertain), to great success until it was unable to survive the Great Recession, which saw the UK high-street retailer Woolworths (its main revenue stream) fall into administration.[9][7]