Tinopolis Acquires BASE Productions

LONDON/LOS ANGELES: The U.K.’s Tinopolis has purchased the U.S. production outfit BASE Productions, following on its recent acquisition of A. Smith & Co.

BASE, founded by co-CEOs John Brenkus and Mickey Stern, has its own studio and production facilities in Burbank, California, and offices in Washington, D.C. Among its top titles are Sports Science, a long-running series for ESPN; Known Universe and Fight Science for National Geographic; Police POV for truTV; and Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files. Stern joins the board of Tinopolis and continues to lead BASE alongside Brenkus.

This is the latest acquisition by Tinopolis, which owns Mentorn, Sunset+Vine, Pioneer Productions and A. Smith & Co.

Ron Jones, Tinopolis’ executive chairman, said: "We have admired the company built up by John and Mickey for some time. They have established a business based on great creativity and impressive business common sense. BASE is a producer trusted and respected throughout the industry and alongside A. Smith & Co we now have a U.S. business with depth and breadth of coverage.

"BASE has experience and formats with the potential to be successful world-wide. This will be a major opportunity for our distribution company, MINT, and reinforces our plans to build a portfolio of brands and formats that work internationally."

He continued: "We have a strong reputation for producing quality programs across a range of genres. In sport we supply the BBC’s coverage of the horse racing classics such as the Derby and all sports coverage for BBC Scotland and Channel 5. From our drama expertise in Daybreak and Fiction Factory to our expertise in live programming, particularly for S4C, and Mentorn and Pioneer’s record on factual programs, we are a strong creative team. With two major producers in the U.S. now as part of the group Tinopolis has become a truly international player and even better able to serve our customers around the world."

"We’ve been approached by numerous companies over the years, and none of the offers made sense until now," added Brenkus, co-CEO of BASE. "We are thrilled to be joining a group that is as dynamic as Tinopolis, and to be playing a key role in helping to shape the Group’s future. Between their U.K. core, and our new alliance with A. Smith & Co here in the U.S., our combined global reach, quality programming and outstanding management make the Tinopolis Group a true force in the industry."