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    Walt Disney Television Animation experienced significant growth and heightened visibility in 1998, as production increased on both television series and made-for-video films. It was also the year the unit received its first Academy Award nomination, for the animated short Redux Riding Hood.

New children's shows, Recess and Pepper Ann, joined Disney's Doug on ABC. Together with the acclaimed overall environment of Disney's One Saturday Morning, these series propelled the network to the top of the Saturday morning children's ratings for the first time since 1990. In September, Disney's Hercules joined the Saturday line-up, in addition to appearing Monday through Friday in syndication.

MouseWorks shorts will appear in theaters and on television, bringing Disney's classic characters to a whole new generation.

Simba's Pride debuted on video and, by year's end, was well on its way to becoming one of the most successful made-for-video movies ever.

1999 brings Winnie the Pooh, a Valentine for You, the fourth in a series of holiday specials on ABC. Walt Disney Television Animation also is producing MouseWorks cartoon shorts starring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy. This important initiative will help keep the Disney classic characters vital and fresh for a whole new generation of fans. Selected shorts will be seen with Disney theatrical and home video releases before they appear in a regular series on ABC beginning this spring.

    In January, all of Disney's recorded music businesses were brought together to form a new group. For the first time, Hollywood Records, Walt Disney Records, Mammoth Records, Lyric Street Records and Walt Disney Music Publishing will be managed within a single cohesive organization. To head up this new unit, Bob Cavallo, a music industry veteran, was hired as BVMG's chairman.

The new management's first release, Fastball's All the Pain Money Can Buy, sold more than a million units, becoming the best-selling album ever released by an artist developed by Hollywood Records. Another hit for Hollywood Records was Jennifer Paige's single, Crush, which reached the top 10 in the fall. The Squirrel Nut Zippers' album Perennial Favorites went gold for the Mammoth label, as did the Mulan sound-track for Walt Disney Records.

Lyric Street, the Nashville-based country label, issued its first album in June, Stepping Stone, by Lari White. The single, Stepping Stone, reached the top ten on country radio playlists.

Classic Disney Volume I: 60 Years of Magic from Walt Disney Records won the National Association of Record Merchants award as the best-selling children's album of the year.

In October, BVMG announced the creation of Hollywood Records Latin to focus on the rapidly growing Latin music market. Los Lobos has been signed to the new label, and the L.A.-based band plans to release a new album early this year.

The music group's key 1999 releases include the sound-tracks from A Bug's Life, TarzanŽ and Fantasia 2000, along with a Lyric Street release by country star Aaron Tippin; Tigger Mania, featuring Peter Frampton, and Mannheim Meets the Mouse, featuring Mannheim Steamroller.

BVMG will also oversee the creation of two symphonies commissioned to celebrate the millennium. Michael Torke will compose a symphony that examines the past half century, while Pulitzer prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis will write a choral symphony that looks to the future. The millennium symphonies will premiere in the fall.