Lexington Broadcast Services Company

The Lexington Broadcast Services Company (first known as Lexington Broadcast Services and later known as LBS Communications) was a television production and syndication company founded in 1976 by advertising pioneer Henry Siegel. "Advertising Age" wrote of Siegel as "the man who built Lexington Broadcast Services into the nation's largest barter syndicator, and thus defined that segment of the TV ad business."
The company was known for distributing programs from DIC Entertainment and Columbia Pictures Television (including select material from Columbia subsidiary/label Screen Gems), by way of its Colex Enterprises joint venture with Columbia, in addition to the 1991 syndicated re-launch of "Baywatch". The company was also known for handling Elia Kazan's films that he directed from 1945 to 1976, and syndicating selected Bob Hope-produced movies that reverted to him after their initial release.
Around the time that the joint venture with Columbia Pictures Entertainment ended in 1988, LBS began to lose money, and in December 1991, LBS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As a result, the company ended up having to sell between 80 and 85 percent of its assets to its "Baywatch" distributor partner, the Scotti Brothers' All American Television. In 1997, All American was sold to Pearson plc, and was re-branded as Pearson Television. Pearson Television later merged with CLT-UFA to form RTL Group and Pearson Television was renamed to FremantleMedia. As of today, most of LBS' library is owned by FremantleMedia with some exceptions.