Disney Studios no longer "MGM"?

[KatelynnsAuntie]

I just received the Disney Vacation Planning Video, and in it they are referring to the Studios as Disney Studios...they no longer refer to it as "Disney MGM Studios". No mention of MGM anywhere. Any one know what this is all about?

 

[wdwguide]

It's been like that for years in certain promotional materials. The park is still called the Disney-MGM Studios.

 

[dzneelvr]

Auntie: I've noticed a slow progress of limiting the MGM over the past several years as well.
When we first started going years ago, MGM was very prominent. My guess is it will eventually go altogether. The better to treasure all my MGM/DS memorabilia in years to come!!

Dollywood in 2003!
WDW in 2004!

 

[disney1990]

When we were at Disney in May, we noticed that the store that is in the Disney Animation courtyard has a lot of Disney-MGM stuff -- t-shirts, sweatshirts, anything you can think of. It appeared to us that they were trying to market the Disney-MGM name again.

 

[QuickGold]

DIsney's agreement with MGM ends in 2004 so assumably Disney is trying to gently move people over to just Disney Studios.

 

[wdwguide]

I believe I found the answer to this question.

In 1997, MGM filed a lawsuit alleging that Disney failed to construct a MGM-themed attraction within nine years of the date the contract between the companies was signed, which was one of the provisions of the deal. They won, and Disney thus lost the rights to use the MGM name outside of Florida and western Europe. There, Disney had been marketing the proposed Disney-MGM Studios Europe, a park that was ultimately cancelled in favor of the smaller Walt Disney Studios park (in other words, by now they may have lost the rights to use that name there, too). Thus, they are forced to remove referneces to "MGM" from all promotional materials that are sent outside of Florida.