Telescreen B.V. (formerly known as Telecable Benelux B.V.) was a Dutch television production & distribution company and a former animation studio that is specialised in producing and distributing kids & family entertainment content. It was established in 1983 by Finnish entrepreneur & producer Dennis Livson and Jos Kaandorp as an independent production & distribution company and was acquired by Japanese firm Mitsui, before being sold to Dutch production company Palm Plus Multimedia who handled Telescreen until 2005 before being sold to German company Made 4 Entertainment (m4e) in 2008. It has produced and distributed children's TV series such as Miffy, Moomin and Alfred J Kwak since 1983.
The international Consumer Products department manages and develops the merchandising programs of animated properties worldwide, such as Frog & Friends and Lizzie McGuire.
As licensing agent, they also represent some of the world's major entertainment companies in the Benelux territory, such as: BBC Worldwide, Turner Broadcasting, Chapman Entertainment and Aardman Animations.
The company services the full range of children's entertainment production, from animation production, TV distribution, home entertainment, consumer products, royalty administration to artwork coordination and creation.
Telescreen B.V. was founded in 1983 under the name Telecable Benelux BV by Dennis Livson and Jos Kaandorp. In 1994, the name Telecable Benelux B.V. was changed into Telescreen B.V. Soon thereafter, Livson sold the company to the giant Japanese entertainment firm Mitsui & Company, which acquired the company through a spin-off subsidiary, Pri-mation Media B.V.
In 1993, Japanese trading corporate organisation & entertainment firm Mitsui Group acquired Telescreen from its Finnish entrepreneur, producer and co-founder Dennis Livson, giving the Japanese trading organisation their own Dutch production & distribution firm and had it placed under Pri-Mation Media.
In December 1998, Telescreen along with its former Dutch production/distribution and licensing parent company Pri-mation Media was acquired by Dutch producer and distributor Palm Plus Produkties from Japanese organisation Mitsui with Palm Plus becoming Telescreen's then-new parent holding company as a result of its acquisition, marking Palm Plus' entry into the kids & family entertainment market. However seven years later on February 25, 2005, Palm Plus Multimedia would eventually exit the children's genre by selling Telescreen under a management buyout when Telescreen's CEO Ruud Van Breugel had stepped down the Dutch children's distribution company, returning Telescreen into an independent distribution company as Palm Plus gained a 51% stake in Telescreen while its former director of co-productions & founder of Hoek, Line and Thinker Tom van Waveren returning to the former as its CCO.
In March 2003, Telescreen and its then-parent company Palm Plus Produkties announced that they have acquired the Egmont Imagination catalog from Danish publishing company Egmont Group outside the Nordic territories with Telescreen distributing the acquired catalog internationally, except the Nordic territories with former Egmont Imagination president Tom van Waveren had been appointed as Telescreen's director of co-productions.
At the start of November 2004, Telescreen announced that Tom van Waveren (who had joined Telescreen after acquiring the Egmont Imagination library a year prior in 2003) had departed his role as president of Telescreen's distribution division Telescreen Distribution and Licensing to form his own production company entitled Hoek, Line and Thinker as it had taken over Telescreen's upcoming production Skunk Fu.
In September 2006, Telescreen formed a co-production partnership with Los Angeles-based American entertainment studio Suppertime Entertainment to co-produce an animated series based on the book series by H.B. Homzie entitled Alien Clones From Outer Space with Telescreen and Suppertime Entertainment would jointly handle distribution to the series.
In December 2008, the German brand management & media company Made 4 Entertainment (m4e) announced that they had acquired Dutch production & distribution firm Telescreen. This acquisition not only gave Telescreen a new parent company, but it also gave Made 4 Entertainment (m4e) their own Dutch international distribution subsidiary outside of Germany with the acquired company retained their properties and would begin distributing M4E's future productions. One year later on February 19, 2009, following m4e's acquisition of Telescreen back in December 2008, m4e announced that they have restructured their operations by merging their distribution activities with Telescreen's own distribution business with Telescreen taking international distribution of m4e's TV, new media and home entertainment rights outside of Germany. Telescreen's licensing division Telescreen Licensing & Merchandising was renamed to Telescreen Consumer Products following the restructure.
A month later on March 31 following Telescreen's restructure alongside m4e's, Telescreen alongside its German parent m4e acquired the worldwide rights to the Pinkeltje franchise.
On April 5, 2011, Telescreen's parent company m4e through the latter's television division m4e Television announced that they have brought the back catalogue of German brand management company TV-Loonland AG expanding m4e's portfolio with Telescreen and its parent company m4e taken over international distribution of the TV Loonland library.
In late-January 2017, Belgian production group Studio 100 via its global distribution division Studio 100 Media (now Studio 100 International) had established a deal to acquire a 68% majority stake in Dutch distribution company Telescreen and its German brand management and media production & distribution company parent, Made 4 Entertainment (M4E AG), alongside the Egmont Imagination and TV-Loonland libraries in a deal that could combine Made 4 Entertainment (m4e)'s wider library with Studio 100's expanded catalogue which would make the latter as the biggest kids & family entertainment content companies across Europe while Studio 100 Media would handle distribution to the Telescreen catalogue when the acquisition is completed A month later in late-February of that same year, Studio 100's global distribution division Studio 100 Media announced that they've completed their acquisition of a 68% majority stake in Dutch distribution company Telescreen and its parent German brand management and media production & distribution owner parent, Made 4 Entertainment (m4e AG), along with the Egmont Imagination and TV-Loonland libraries, making it a subsidiary of Studio 100 Media as Studio 100's distribution arm became the new owner of the Telescreen library alongside the Egmont Imagination catalogue.