Entertainment Rights

Entertainment Rights Plc was a global media company. Its main role was in children and family television programming. The group was established in 1989 as Sleepy Kids. In 1999 it became Entertainment Rights and was focused on the creation and exploitation of major children's characters and brands. On 1 April 2009 Entertainment Rights was acquired by Boomerang Media (formed by the founders of subsidiary Classic Media), in May 2009, Entertainment Rights and its subsidiaries and offices was absorbed into Classic Media,  and on July 23, 2012 Classic Media was purchased by DreamWorks Animation.

Sleepy Kids
Sleepy Kids PLC (a.k.a. The Sleepy Kids Co. Ltd) was set up in 1989, by Martin and Vivien Schrager-Powell to produce Potsworth & Co. (a children's animated series the pair created) in partnership with Hanna-Barbera, and within a few months the company was floated on the stock exchanges. Sleepy Kids later went on to help produce Dr. Zitbag's Transylvania Pet Shop and Budgie the Little Helicopter.

Between 1998 and 1999 the company expanded at a rapid rate, with acquired Siriol Productions and merged with The Richard Digance Card Co, Clipper Films Ltd, and Ridgeway Films Ltd in December 1998. During 1999 Boom Boom Ltd (the owners of Basil Brush), Carrington Productions International (owner of a library of children's animation films, from Ventureworld Films) and Dr. Zitbag's Transylvania Pet Shop were all brought as part of a long term plan to build a substantial business owning intellectual property rights.

The company was renamed to SKD Media just after these take overs but only lasted a year when the company was again renamed to Entertainment Rights.

Renamed to Entertainment Rights
The company went on to expand by acquiring rights to properties from other studios such as Woodland Animations, Varga London, Link Entertainment, Hibbert Ralph Entertainment, Broadway Video, Golden Books Entertainment, Little Entertainment Co and the Maddocks Animation library in 2001. In 2004 they acquired Tell-Tale Productions along with most of the rights to the Filmation library from Hallmark Entertainment (who previously acquired them from Loreal). At the end of 2004, it employed on average 95 people. The company reported on June 30, 2005, that its turnover was £12.4 million. The company has also tried to take over Chorion but the offer was rejected.

In 2005 a management buyout took place for Siriol Productions and was renamed Calon. The deal include all current project and some of the back catalogue, but most of the rights of previous made programmes and continued to beheld by Entertainment Rights.

On 14 December 2006, Entertainment Rights announced it would acquire US-based rival Classic Media for $210 million (£106.9 million). The deal was completed on 11 January 2007. Before the acquisition of Classic Media by Entertainment Rights was completed, both companies announced distribution and production agreements with Genius Products, LLC.

In December 2008 Deborah Dugan (former president of Disney Publishing Worldwide) as the appointed Chief Executive Officer, which was part of a board or management changes to help sort out cash flow issues and allow the company to operate on a more stable footing. Unfortunately by January 2009 the company has cut a third of its staff ands market value collapse from £267m in March 2007 to just £5.5m. Three companies did enquire about buying the firm, This increase to six companies by start of February when the company was fined £245,000 by Financial Services Authority for failing to inform shareholds of a potential $14 million earnings hit in a timely manner.

This resulted in the company going in to Administration in February. Within two months in April 2009 Boomerang Media acquired all Entertainment Rights subsidiaries - ER, Big Idea and Classic Media, which finally sorted out all outstanding issues around the company. Boomerang Media was created by the same people who owned Classic Media until it was sold to Entertainment Rights in 2006.

Tell-Tale Productions
Tell-Tale Productions was started in 1994 by Iain Lauchlan and Will Brenton as a "writing vehicle" for their own needs, but changed when pair created and started production of The Tweenies in 1999. The company expanded to employ over 60 people. On 13 September 2004 it become a wholly owned subsidiary of Entertainment Rights at a cost of £3.1m.

List of programmes and films
Some were made in conjunction with other studios:

Banksia Productions

 * The Curiosity Show
 * Hot Science
 * The Music Shop
 * Kids Down Under

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's Magic Christmas
 * Postman Pat Clowns Around
 * Postman Pat and the Pirate Treasure
 * Rupert Bear, Follow the Magic...

Filmation

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

Little Entertainment Co.

 * Merlin the Magical Puppy
 * Little Red Tractor

Maddocks Animation

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

Miscellaneous

 * Barney (co-produced with Barney Entertainments Ltd and Link Entertainment)
 * Christopher Crocodile (co-produced with Mixpix and BBC)
 * 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)
 * Ethelbert the Tiger (co-produced with Millimages and Link Entertainment)
 * Eye of the Storm (co-produced with Meridian Broadcasting and Pater Tabern)
 * Finley the Fire Engine (co-produced with RHI Entertainment)
 * Hamilton Mattress (co-produced with Harvest Films, Egmont Imagination and BBC)
 * Inuk (co-produced with Tube Studios)
 * Katie and Orbie (season 1 only; co-produced with Lacewood Productions)
 * Teddybears (co-produced with Link Entertainment and United Productions)
 * The New Adventures of He-Man (co-produced with DIC Entertainment, Jetlag Productions, Parafrance Communications and LBS Communications)
 * The Morph Files (co-produced with Aardman Animations and Link Entertainment)
 * The Slow Norris (co-produced with HTV)
 * The Spooks of Bottle Bay (co-produced with Fugitive/Playboard Puppets and Carlton Television)
 * There's A Viking In My Bed (co-produced with Link Entertainment and BBC)
 * Titch (co-produced with Hutchins Film Company and Yorkshire Television)

Queensgate Productions

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

Silver Fox Animation

 * Spider!
 * The Forgotten Toys (both the TV series and the special; co-produced with United Productions, Meridian Broadcasting and Link Entertainment)
 * The First Snow of Winter (co-produced with Link Entertainment and BBC)
 * The Second Star to the Right (co-produced with BBC)

Sleepy Kids

 * Potsworth & Co. (co-produced with Hanna-Barbera and BBC)
 * 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)

Tell-Tale Productions

 * The Tweenies (co-produced with BBC)
 * Fun Song Factory
 * BB3B
 * Jim Jam and Sunny (co-produced with Wish Films)
 * Boo! (co-produced with Universal Pictures, BBC and CBeebies)

Transformers

 * 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: Energon (co-produced with Hasbro, Takara Tomy, We've Inc, ACTAS, Inc., A-CAT, Studio Galapagos and TV Tokyo)
 * Transformers: Cybertron (co-produced with Hasbro, Takara Tomy, We've Inc, TV Aichi, GONZO, Sun Woo Entertainment and Voice Box Productions)
 * Transformers Animated (co-produced with Hasbro, Takara Tomy, The Answer Studio, MOOK DLE, Studio 4°C and Cartoon Network Studios)

Trumptonshire

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

Varga London

 * Preston Pig (co-produced with Link Entertainment)
 * Mr. Bean: The Animated Series (co-produced with Tiger Aspect Productions)

Woodland Animations

 * Postman Pat (original series)
 * Gran
 * Bertha
 * Charlie Chalk
 * Postman Pat and the Toy Soldiers
 * Postman Pat Takes the Bus
 * Postman Pat and the Tuba
 * Postman Pat and the Barometer