Steve Saltman

World Screen Weekly, December 11, 2008

Senior VP, Worldwide Television
Image Entertainment

Founded more than two decades ago, the California-based Image Entertainment has become one of the most well-known independent home-entertainment distributors in North America. With a catalogue of more than 3,400 titles, many of which Image holds all rights to, the decision was made earlier this year to expand the company’s distribution business. For this effort, Image turned to its head of U.S. TV distribution, Steve Saltman, whose responsibilities were broadened to include sales of all Image content to TV, nontheatrical and VOD platforms worldwide.

Saltman notes that the biggest push for him and his team has been to "get the word out that we’re here," and that seems to have paid off: revenues from TV at Image have soared from about $600,000 last year to "more than $4 million" and counting, he says.

Saltman credits the strength and breadth of Image’s catalogue for this growth spurt. Highlights include numerous musical performances, led by the recent acquisition k.d. lang: Live in London, with the singer performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Image also has the worldwide rights to The Who At Kilburn: 1977. Other titles in the event-special space are one-offs like Craig Ferguson: A Wee Bit of Revolution, recently licensed to Comedy Central in the U.S., and documentaries like Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life, the Academy-Award-winning Taxi to the Dark Side and the acclaimed War Dance. The portfolio also includes a slate of independent features, a growing area for Image, Saltman says. "When we got involved in film, [it was] mostly direct to video; now we’re distributing films that have had a theatrical release in the U.S. The most buzz-worthy of the output so far was Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney.

"The diversity of product gives our staff the ability to talk to a lot of different people," Saltman continues. "If [sales of] music performances are slow at a particular time, we’ve got movies and docs and stand-up comedy and IMAX titles."

For Saltman, the varied catalogue fits in nicely with his own diverse experience in the TV business. A self-described "broadcasting brat," Saltman grew up with a father who worked at a number of local TV stations. Saltman fell into a career in entertainment in L.A., working at the Universal Ampitheater. After law school he returned to the Universal fold at MCA, working as an attorney in the worldwide TV distribution team. He was soon bitten by the sales bug and hasn’t looked back, with stints running his own company and at Blockbuster’s DEJ Productions and Western International Media, among other firms. He takes great joy in working at a company like Image, which, he notes, has a track record of maintaining staff loyalty. "I hope to be here until I retire!"

—By Mansha Daswani