DHX Media

Decode Entertainment

Decode Entertainment was established 1997 by Steven DeNure , Neil Court and John Delmage. This company produced shows such as Radio Free Roscoe, Weird-Oh's, Naturally, Sadie, The Zack Files, Angela Anaconda, Undergrads, The Hoobs, Chop Socky Chooks, Waybuloo, Bromwell High, Planet Sketch, The Adrenaline Project, Be the Creature, The Blobheads, Grandpa in My Pocket, How to Be Indie, The Latest Buzz, Our Hero, That's So Weird, Clang Invasion, Delilah and Julius, Dudson's Modern Tales, Freaky Stories, Girlstuff/Boystuff, Kid vs. Kat, King, Rastamouse, Naughty Naughty Pets, Olliver's Adventures, Rainbow Fish,The Side Show Christmas, Urban Vermin, Watership Down, Little Ninjas Karate, What About Mimi?, Animal Mechanicals, Bo on the Go!, Dirtgirlworld, Franny's Feet, The Mighty Jungle, Poko, Poppets Town, The Save-Ums and Plumo's Mysteries.

They currently co-produce Super WHY! with New York City-based Out of the Blue Enterprises for PBS Kids in the USA and Kids' CBC in Canada. They also currently co-produce Emma's Theatre for Disney Junior in the USA & Kids' CBC in Canada.

Halifax Film Company

Halifax Film Company was established by former Salter Street Films executives Michael Donovan and Charles Bishop in May 2004. The company produced television shows such as the satirical comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes (begun as a Salter Street production); children's stop-motion series such as Poko and Lunar Jim; CGI productions such as Bo on the Go!, The Mighty Jungle and Animal Mechanicals; as well as the dramas The Guard and North/South.

The byline reads "a DHX Media Company" exactly like that. The logo has a line sandwiched inbetween halifaxfilm and the DHX Media byline.

History

The DHX Media name derives from the combination of the names Decode and Halifax from the 2006 merger between Decode Entertainment and Halifax Film Company. Studio B Productions got acquired by, and became a subsidiary of DHX Media on December 4, 2007.

A reverse merger deal with Entertainment One was considered in 2008, but got dropped in 2008 as well. On March 25, 2008, DHX Media acquired Bulldog Interactive Fitness. On September 8, 2010, all related subsidiaries and divisions were rebranded under the label DHX Media. On September 14, 2010, DHX Media acquired WildBrain.

On August 20, 2012, it was announced that DHX Media would acquire Cookie Jar Group for $111 million, a deal which would make DHX the world's largest independent owner of children's television programming. The acquisition of Cookie Jar Group by DHX Media closed on October 22, 2012.

In May 2013, DHX introduced three premium, subscription-based channels on YouTube; DHX Junior, DHX Kids, and DHX Retro. DHX executive Michael Hirsh explained that the offerings were meant to leverage the company's library and the growth of digital distribution in the children's television market. DHX was among the first 30 content partners for YouTube's premium channel platform.

Ragdoll Worldwide, a joint venture between Ragdoll Productions, BBC Worldwide and an investment group that manages and licenses Ragdoll programming, was bought by DHX on September 16, 2013 for $27.7 million.

On November 28, 2013, DHX announced that it would acquire four children's specialty television channels from the former Astral Media for $170 million, consisting of Family Channel, Disney Junior (English), Disney Junior (French), and Disney XD. The networks were being sold as a condition of Bell Media's 2013 acquisition of the remainder of Astral Media's assets; its purchase of the networks marked DHX's first foray into television broadcasting. The deal was approved by the CRTC on July 24, 2014, and closed on July 31, 2014. The channels were incorporated into a new unit, DHX Television.

In early 2014, DHX Media acquired Epitome Pictures, the producers of Degrassi, but Epitome did not own international distribution rights. In November, DHX purchased the rights to 117 titles from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment, the US distributor that owned the international distribution rights to Degrassi, Instant Star and The L.A. Complex, two other Epitome productions plus 117 children’s and family series consisting of about 1,200 half-hours and another 34 series' distribution rights. Other shows in the purchase included Lunar Jim, Beast Wars: Transformers and Emily of New Moon. Nerd Corps Entertainment, a Canadian animation studio founded by former Mainframe Entertainment producers Asaph Fipke and Chuck Johnson, was acquired by DHX Media on December 24.

In April 2015, Corus Entertainment announced that it had acquired Canadian rights to the program library of Disney Channel and its associated brands as part of a deal with the Disney–ABC Television Group; DHX's existing deal with Disney, which covered programming across the four DHX Television services, ended in January 2016. DHX's Disney-branded channels were re-branded as Family Jr., Family Chrgd, and Télémagino.

In August 2015, DHX reached an output deal with AwesomenessTV; the deal includes rights to its programming for Family Channel, along with plans to co-develop new, original content for DHX to distribute and merchandise internationally.

In December 2015, DHX reached an output deal with DreamWorks Animation, which included Canadian rights to its original animated television series, and a pact to co-produce 130 episodes of animated programming for the Family networks, with DHX handling Canadian distribution and DreamWorks handling international distribution.