Entertainment Rights

Entertainment Rights logo used from 2000 to 2009.

***Entertainment Rights*** is a British media company founded in 1989 as Sleepy Kids. In 2000, the company was renamed as "Entertainment Rights" and expanded into acquisitions and new productions of older kids' properties. As of June 2001, it became the owner of the Cartoonverse's TV library. In 2002 to 2009, the company owns television rights to the TV industry of Cartoonverse.

In 2007, the company acquired US-based Classic Media, which forced them into bankruptcy. In April 2009, Entertainment Rights was acquired by a new US-based company called Boomerang Media, L.L.C., which is formed by the founders of Classic Media with backing from private equity firm GTCR, and then a month later, they were folded under the Classic Media name.

## 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*. In 1990, its division, Cartoonverse Television, was officially founded.

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.

As of June 2001, Entertainment Rights became the owner of the Cartoonverse's TV library

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 (£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.

## 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.*

### Cartoonverse

* *Transformers Academy* (co-produced with Ubisoft and RTÉjr.)
* *The Electric Company: Marcus and Jessica's Big Adventure* (co-produced with its subsidiary Classic Media)
* *Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary* (co-production with Cookie Jar Entertainment, Puyo Puyo Television, Tu Nous ZA Pas Vus Productions and Nexus Productions)
* *The Adventures of Panty and Stocking* (co-produced with The Jim Henson Company and Studio 100 Animation)
* *The Adventures of Belle and His Mom* (co-produced with Hasbro, Go!Animate Television and BBC)
* *I Am Frankie* (co-produced with RTÉjr. and Cookie Jar Entertainment)

### 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)

## References

1. ↑ UK: Making it Tough for Tots - Sleepy Kids. (1992-06-01). Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
2. ↑ Skd Media To Buy Out Carrington Productions. Broadcast (1999-10-29). Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
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3. ↑ SKD boosts overseas sales profile. Broadcast (1999-11-26). Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
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4. ↑ Entertainment Rights buys Postman Pat creator (7 November 2001). Retrieved on 1 November 2017.
5. ↑ **Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration' not found.**
6. ↑ Entertainment Rights acquires Tell-Tale Productions. Crisher Entertainment (2004-09-13). Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
7. ↑ Welcome to the new mad.co.uk. Technologyweekly.mad.co.uk. Retrieved on 2013-05-31.
8. ↑ **Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration' not found.**
9. ↑ Lianne Stewart (2005-08-01). Siriol heads south, and Lyons moves on. Kidscreen. Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
10. ↑ Genius Products announces long-term co-production and distribution agreements with Entertainment Rights PLC and Classic Media. Wayback Machine (8 January 2007). Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved on 18 September 2017.
11. ↑ ER announces new CEO (2008-12-08). Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
12. ↑ **Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration' not found.**
13. ↑ Six bid for Entertainment Rights. Licensing.biz (2009-01-26). Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
14. ↑ Now Entertainment Rights is hit with FSA fine. Licensing.biz (2009-01-23). Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
15. ↑ Daily Mail Reporter (2009-04-01). Entertainment Rights is sold off. Retrieved on 2013-05-31.
16. ↑ Chas Tang (2009-08-10). Entertainment Rights Plc - four months on. Entertainment Rights Shareholders Action. Retrieved on 2013-05-31.
17. ↑ Boomerang Media acquires Entertainment Rights' subsidiaries (2009-01-23). Retrieved on 2011-11-15.
18. ↑ **Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration' not found.**
19. ↑ **Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration' not found.**
20. ↑ **Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration' not found.**
21. ↑ Postman Pat sold for Ł5m. BBC News (2001-11-08). Retrieved on 2017-04-24.