Entertainment Rights

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Entertainment Rights was a media company with international business in the production and sales of Children's television series. The business entity was first founded in 1989 as "Sleepy Kids". In 1999, the company was renamed "Entertainment Rights".

Video Entertainment Rights

History

In 1989, "Sleepy Kids" was founded by Martin and Vivien Schrager-Powell. It was created in order to produce Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone (Potsworth and Co. in the UK) a children's animated series. Schrager-Powell's business partner was Hanna-Barbera. Within months of the founding, Sleepy Kids became a public company. It produced Dr. Zitbag's Transylvania Pet Shop and Budgie the Little Helicopter.

Between 1998 and 1999, Sleepy Kids expanded. In December 1998, the company merged with The Richard Digance Card Company, Clipper Films and Ridgeway Films. In 1999, the company acquired Siriol Productions. Also in 1999, Sleepy Kids purchased Boom Boom (owner of Basil Brush), Carrington Productions International (owner of the Ventureworld Films and Dr. Zitbag's Transylvania Pet Shop.

Following these acquisitions, Sleepy Kids was renamed "SKD Media". In 2000, SKD Media was renamed "Entertainment Rights". Entertainment Rights purchased the rights to programs from companies such as Link Entertainment (distributors for Woodland Animations) Varga London, Hibbert Ralph Entertainment, and Maddocks Animation and Little Entertainment Company.

In 2004, Entertainment rights acquired Tell-Tale Productions and rights to most of the Filmation library from Sonar Entertainment (Hallmark).

At the end of 2004, Entertainment Rights employed 95 people. In the 2005 financial year, Entertainment Rights' revenue was £12.4 million. The company bid for Chorion but the offer was rejected.

In 2005, Siriol Productions came under new management. The company was renamed "Calon". Most of the rights to completed productions were kept by Entertainment Rights.

On 11 January 2007, Entertainment Rights acquired Classic Media for US$210 million (£106.9 million). Before completion, both companies announced distribution and production agreements with Genius Products.

In December 2008, the company appointed of Deborah Dugan, former president of Disney Publishing Worldwide, as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). There had been financial instability within the company.

By January 2009, the company had dismissed one third of its employees. The company's market value decreased from £267 million in March 2007 to £5.5 million. By February 2009, six companies had requested to purchase Entertainment Rights. Also in February 2009, Entertainment Rights was fined £245,000 by the Financial Services Authority for failing to inform shareholders of "a potential $14 million earnings hit in a timely manner".

On 1 April 2009, Entertainment Rights went into voluntary administration. On the same day, Boomerang Media announced it had acquired all of Entertainment Rights subsidiaries including Entertainment Rights itself, Big Idea and Classic Media. On May 11, 2009, Boomerang Media announced that the former U.K. and U.S. subsidiaries of Entertainment Rights would operate as a unified business under the name "Classic Media", while Big Idea would operate under its own name. Boomerang Media was created by former owners of Classic Media until it was sold to Entertainment Rights in 2006.

In 2012, Classic Media was acquired by DreamWorks Animation. DreamWorks Animation was then acquired by NBCUniversal in 2016, thus Universal Pictures gaining the rights to most of Entertainment Rights' catalogue of works.

Maps Entertainment Rights

List of licensed programs and acquisitions

Banksia Productions

The Curiosity Show
Hot Science
Kids Down Under
The Music Shop

Cosgrove Hall

Discworld (co-produced with Channel 4, Carrington Productions International and ITEL)
Lavender Castle (co-produced with Carrington Productions International)
Postman Pat (2003)
Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket
Postman Pat and the Pirate Treasure
Postman Pat Clowns Around
Postman Pat's Magic Christmas
Rupert Bear, Follow the Magic...

Filmation

For a full list of shows, films, shorts and specials, see Filmation.

Hibbert Ralph Entertainment

The First Snow of Winter (co-produced with Link Entertainment and BBC)
The Forgotten Toys (both the TV series and the special; co-produced with United Productions, Meridian Broadcasting and Link Entertainment)
The Second Star to the Left: A Christmas Tale (co-produced with BBC)
Spider! (later sold to Evergreen Entertainment)

Link Entertainment

Animal Antics
Barney (co-produced with Barney Entertainments Ltd)
Bill the Minder (produced by Bevanfield Films)
Christopher Crocodile (co-produced with Mixpix and BBC)
Fairy Tales (produced by Bevanfield Films)
Ethelbert the Tiger (co-produced with Millimages)
Eye of the Storm (co-produced with Meridian Broadcasting and Pater Tabern)
Grabbit the Rabbit
Hamilton Mattress (co-produced with Harvest Films, Egmont Imagination and BBC)
Jack and Marcel
The Morph Files (co-produced with Aardman Animations)
Orm and Cheep
Preston Pig (co-produced with Varga London)
Tales of a Wise King
The Slow Norris (co-produced with HTV)
The Spooks of Bottle Bay (co-produced with Fugitive/Playboard Puppets and Carlton Television)
Teddybears (co-produced with United Productions)
There's A Viking In My Bed (co-produced with BBC)

Little Entertainment Company

Little Red Tractor
Merlin the Magical Puppy

Maddocks Animation

Caribou Kitchen
The Family-Ness
Jimbo and the Jet Set
Penny Crayon

Queensgate Productions

Stoppit and Tidyup (co-produced with CMTB Animation)
The Trap Door (co-produced with CMTB Animation)

Sleepy Kids

Dr. Zitbag's Transylvania Pet Shop (co-produced with Fairwater Films, PMMP Productions and Carlton Television)
Budgie the Little Helicopter (co-produced with HTV and Fred Wolf Films)
Potsworth & Co. (co-produced with Hanna-Barbera and BBC)

Tell-Tale Productions

BB3B
Boo! (co-produced with Universal Pictures, BBC and CBeebies)
Fun Song Factory

Transformers

Transformers: Animated (co-produced with Hasbro, Takara Tomy, The Answer Studio, MOOK DLE, Studio 4°C and Cartoon Network Studios)
Transformers: Armada (co-produced with Hasbro, Takara Tomy, Æon, Dangun Pictures, Hangzhou Feilong Animation Ltd, M.S.J. Musashino-Seisakujo, Paramount Domestic Television and SD Entertainment)
Transformers: Cybertron (co-produced with Hasbro, Takara Tomy, We've Inc, TV Aichi, GONZO, Sun Woo Entertainment and Voice Box Productions)
Transformers: Energon (co-produced with Hasbro, Takara Tomy, We've Inc, ACTAS, Inc., A-CAT, Studio Galapagos and TV Tokyo)

Trumptonshire

Camberwick Green (co-produced with BBC)
Chigley (co-produced with BBC)
Trumpton (co-produced with BBC)

Woodland Animations

For a full list of shows and details, see Woodland Animations.

Miscellaneous

Cubeez (co-produced with Starsound B.V. and Cubeedobeedo Ltd)
Custer's Last Stand-up (co-produced with BBC and RTÉ)
Dr Otter (co-produced with Red Balloon Productions)
Finley the Fire Engine (co-produced with RHI Entertainment)
Inuk (co-produced with Tube Studios)
Katie and Orbie (season 1 only; co-produced with Lacewood Productions)
The New Adventures of He-Man (co-produced with DIC Entertainment, Jetlag Productions, Parafrance Communications and LBS Communications)
Titch (co-produced with Hutchins Film Company and Yorkshire Television)