Entertainment Rights (ER), home to the animated series Postman Pat and Little Red Tractor, has bought Tell-Tale Prods., maker of the hit BBC puppet show, The Tweenies, and the animated BBC series, Boo. The deal follows ER’s recent acquisition of the Filmation portfolio.
The acquisition will bring new creative talent to ER, which boasts strength in television/home video distribution, licensing, merchandising and brand management. ER hopes the combination will make ER a formidable force in the worldwide kids television market. Tell-Tale creative directors Iain Lauchlan, Will Brenton, Karl Woolley and Helen Cadwallader will join ER to lead the creative division and immediately begin work on an extensive production and development slate.
Tell-Tale’s The Tweenies has been broadcast in more than 60 countries worldwide and sold more than 3 million videos in the U.K. alone. The show airs on Nickelodeon and Noggin in the U.S., where a live touring stage show is planned for Srping 2005. A Tweenies major motion picture is also in the works for delivery in 2005 or 2006.
Other shows in development at Tell-Tale at the time of the acquisition include the animated show Sprogs, which has the lives of two siblings turned upside down when a new baby enters the picture.
