2008–2013
On 30 September 2009, Chapman announced the acquisition of the two upcoming preschool series Little Charley Bear and Rah Rah from HIT Entertainment and CCI Entertainment, respectively.[16][17][18] Little Charley Bear was first announced by HIT in January as co-production with London-based animation studio Annix Studios and was already pre-sold to CBeebies initially for a broadcast later that year before being changed to 2011 after the acquisition.[19] However, HIT would remain as the show's distribution agent for television and home entertainment. Rah Rah, later renamed as Raa Raa the Noisy Lion, was announced by CCI and Mackinnon & Saunders in April and had also been pre-sold to CBeebies for a 2011 release cycle.[20] Both programmes would premiere on CBeebies later in 2011 as planned.
In July 2011, Chapman Entertainment announced the departure of their MD Greg Lynn ahead of massive company redundancies. "Soaring costs and challenging trading conditions" were listed as the reasons for the redundancies.[21][22] The following month, the company announced that they had placed itself up for sale, blaming poor toy sales as the main cause.[23]
On 28 February 2012, Chapman's distributor Target Entertainment was placed under administration by its owners Metrodome.[24] Chapman secured a new non-US and UK distribution deal with Cake Entertainment for its entire catalogue the following month.[25] In November 2012, Chapman Entertainment announced that the company would be placed into administration, again blaming poor toy sales as the main cause.
In September 2013, DreamWorks Animation acquired Chapman Entertainment's content library. The acquisition added to DreamWorks' growing library of family entertainment brands that also includes properties gained when it acquired Classic Media in 2012. The Chapman programs are now distributed through DreamWorks Distribution, DreamWorks Animation's UK-based TV distribution operation. [26] The company went dormant after the library was acquired, and was fully dissolved in August 2017.
As of today, Chapman's shows in the United States are currently available on Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service.
