Tinopolis touches Base with $75m buy-out

Wales-based production group Tinopolis has bought its second US prodco this summer, paying US$75m for Base Productions.

The deal brings Base – best known for shows such as A+E Network’s Crime 360 and ESPN’s Sport Science – into the Tinopolis fold, where it will sit alongside fellow US prodco A Smith & Co.

Base will continue to operate out of LA and Washington DC, with co-CEO John Brenkus and Mickey Stern remaining in their roles. Stern will join Tinopolis’s board and Brenkus gets a seat on the firm’s North American board. Both become “significant” shareholders.

Tinopolis has paid an estimated £45m (US$75m) for the firm, which is also behind Fight Science, Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files and Police POV. The deal comes after Tinopolis paid a reported US$100m for A Smith & Co in June.

Base and Tinopolis claimed today that the deal would allow them to “leverage programmes, rights and formats on a global basis” and give the latter direct access to factual- and sport-skewed US cable nets such as National Geographic Channel and ESPN. Base, meanwhile, can “tap into Tinopolis’s format and production resources.”

Tinopolis executive chairman Ron Jones said: “Base is a producer trusted and respected throughout the industry and alongside A Smith & Co we now have a US business with depth and breadth of coverage.”

Tinopolis businesses include sports subsidiary Sunset + Vine, drama prodcos Daybreak and Fiction Factory, and factual producers Pioneer.

Base co-CEO Brenkus – who presents Sport Science – said “numerous companies” had attempted to take over his company but “none of the offers made sense until now.”

“We’ve been growing so rapidly and expanding our international footprint so extensively over the past few years, it’s been increasingly important for Base to shore up global relationships with trusted partners,” added co-CEO Stern.