Studio 100
Studio 100 N.V. is a Belgian production and distribution company that specializes in kids & family entertainment content and operated their in-house animation studios such as their Australian animation company Flying Bark Productions and theme parks worldwide including their own international distribution division Studio 100 International alongside their main television channels such as Studio 100 TV. The headquarters of the company is in Schelle, along with offices in Breda, Munich, Paris, New York City, Sydney and Los Angeles.
History
Studio 100 was founded in 1996 by Gert Verhulst, Danny Verbiest and Hans Bourlon. The three came together for seven years when they created the show Samson & Gert, in which Verhulst and Verbiest also starred. Samson & Gert started as a duo which announced television shows. Besides the production of their original show they started creating a new series called Kabouter Plop. Following the success of these two shows, the company expanded into new fields in 1999. Studio 100 produced their first movie that year, which was called The Gnome Treasure. Additionally, the company began to create the musical Assepoester, a Dutch spoken version of Cinderella. Studio 100 purchased a theme park and converted it to revolve around their IPs. For the latter three, they required co-funding from the Vlaamse Media Maatschappij. In 2002, they began to expand their offering when they acquired the girl group K3 from BMG.In 2005, Danny Verbiest announced his retirement from Samson & Gert, but also as a shareholder of the company. The shares were bought by Verhulst and Bourlon, but in a year later, the shares were sold to BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity. With the new ownership the company ventured into the international, non-Dutch speaking, market by copying their original shows in other languages and creating new shows like Bumba.
In 2007, Studio 100 teamed up with VTech to create electronic toys, The Bumba toys are for 6-36 months, but the others are 3-6 years
Their international expansion took flight in 2008 when they founded a Belgian digital television channel called Studio 100 TV, and Studio 100 Media, a German division to sell their content to the international market. Over the next years, the company revamped the old classics they acquired and established a new cooking channel, called Njam!, in Belgium in 2010 and BeJunior in the Middle East and North Africa in 2016.
In July 2007, Studio 100 launched their own in-house global international distribution division based in Munich named Studio 100 Media to distribute Studio 100's productions worldwide with Studio 100 hiring general manager Patrick Elmendorff to head Studio 100's in-house global distribution division as their president.
On 26 February 2008 three months before Studio 100's acquisition of EM.Sport Media AG's German entertainment production division EM.Entertainment, Studio 100's Munich-based German international distribution division Studio 100 Media established a distribution partnership with Munich-based German entertainment production & distribution company EM.Sport Media AG under the latter's entertainment production division EM.Entertainment to distribute their entertainment portfolio including their classics such as Maya the Bee and Vic the Viking on TV, home entertainment and VOD platforms internationally excluding US, Germany, Australia, New Zealand.
In late-May 2008 following Studio 100's successful distribution partnership with EM.Sport Media AG's EM.Entertainment division under Studio 100's German international distribution division Studio 100 Media three months prior, Studio 100 announced that they've acquired EM.Sport Media AG's entertainment division EM.Entertainment and its library along with the latter's Australian entertainment & animation production studio Flying Bark Productions and their German television channel JuniorTV for €41 million in order for EM.Sport Media AG to focus on its sport activities, the acquisition of EM.Entertainment expanded Studio 100's kids & family programme library and gave Studio 100 their own Australia-based in-house entertainment & animation production studio and a German-language television channel as their first entry into the broadcasting industry outside of Belgium with Studio 100's global distribution division Studio 100 Media taken over EM.Entertainment's distribution library including Yoram Gross's animated productions like Blinky Bill alongside EM.Entertainment's classic catalogue such as Maya the Bee and Vic the Viking and the library of Japanese animation studio Zuiyo bringing the two classic characters together under Studio 100 with the new owner launching new adaptations of the two classic shows.
Two months later in late-August 2008, Studio 100 announced their entry into the channel business by launching their own in-house music television channel in collaboration with Belgian cable TV provider Telenet named Studio 100 TV marking Studio 100's second owned television channel outside of Germany and their first one to be launched in Belgium with the new channel launched a month later in September of that same year, the new channel will run from 6:00am to 10:00pm every day with interactive segments alongside its music programmes and songs from the Studio 100 library and television specials relating to Christmas & going back to school.
One year later, on 12 February 2009 following Studio 100's acquisition of EM.Sport Media AG's entertainment production division EM. Entertainment and its Australian animation production studio Flying Bark Productions, Studio 100 announced that they've launched their in-house animation studio based in Paris, France named Studio 100 Animation to produce new and revamped adaptations of their existing catalogue including the classics that Studio 100 had acquired one year before such as the classics of both Maya the Bee and Vic the Viking alongside producing their original programmes with Jo Harris heading Studio 100's new in-house animation division. Five months later in late-July of that same year, Studio 100 announced that their global distribution division Studio 100 Media had acquired the entire rights to the Maya the Bee from the German public foundation Waldemar Bonsels Foundation.
In July 2012, Studio 100 announced that their head of global business development Jo Daris had exited the Belgian family entertainment company in order for him to launch a new career in real estate development in Asia with Studio 100's co-founder and CEO Hans Bourlon taking over as their new head of global business development.
In May 2013, Studio 100 through its German international distribution division Studio 100 Media announced the expansion of its parent company's activities into the movie business worldwide with the launch of their new film division dedicated to produce and distribute Studio 100's films in-house along with third-party movies named Studio 100 Film with its first production based on its famous characters Maya the Bee: The Movie following the success of Studio 100's animation division's adaptation of the TV series of the same name with the new division securing international distribution for their first movie.
On 4 February 2014, Studio 100 announced the launching of their new digital entertainment division dedicated to Studio 100's reach to release its programmes on digital platforms and named former BBC Worldwide head of digital entertainment executive Tom Reding to head Studio 100's new digital division as their head of digital entertainment.
In late-January 2017 nine years after the acquisition of EM.Sport Media AG's German mids & family production & distribution EM.Entertainment including its German TV channel Junior and Australian animation studio Flying Bark Productions by Studio 100's German global distribution division Studio 100 Media, Studio 100 announced that its global distribution division Studio 100 Media had established a deal to acquire a 68% majority stake in German brand management and media production & distribution company Made 4 Entertainment the producer of Mia and Me and the owner of the libraries of the former German distributor TV-Loonland AG & Danish animation outfit Egmont Imagination alongside its Dutch distribution subsidiary Telescreen in a deal that could combine Studio 100's expanded catalogue with Made 4 Entertainment 's wider library which would make the former as the biggest kids & family entertainment content companies across Europe with Made 4 Entertainment would continue to invest their new content and its global expansion. 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 German brand management and media production & distribution company Made 4 Entertainment the producer of Mia and Me and the owner of the libraries of the former German distributor TV-Loonland AG & Danish animation outfit Egmont Imagination alongside its Dutch distribution subsidiary Telescreen, making it a subsidiary of Studio 100 Media with Made 4 Entertainment 's CEO and founder Hans Ulrich Stoef continued to lead the acquired company through Studio 100 Media. Studio 100 Media would eventually increase their stake of Made 4 Entertainment and later took full control after selling and spinning off some of m4e's subsidiaries three years later in 2020.
At the start of December 2017, Studio 100 expanded their international operations into the United States with their acquisition of New York-based American preschool animation production studio Little Airplane Productions, thrust giving Studio 100 another animation studio this time in the U.S. as their American animation production subsidiary with the latter developing and producing their new projects with Studio 100's own in-house animation production studios such as Studio 100 Animation alongside its Munich-based global distribution division Studio 100 Media distributing them whilst Little Airplane Production founder Josh Selig continued leading the New York-based American animation studios within Studio 100.
In January 2018, Studio 100's global distribution division Studio 100 Media under its German brand subsidiary M4E AG announced that they had taken full control of the live action/animated hybrid series Mia and Me by acquiring the remaining 50% stake in the series from its co-production partner Hahn Film with m4e AG and their parent company Studio 100 planning to expand the franchise.
In late-July 2018, Studio 100 through its Munich-based global production and distribution division Studio 100 Media announced the launch of feature-focused German CGI animation production studio named Studio Isar Animation in order for Studio 100 to expand their film productions completely in-house with the new animation production studio being located at Studio 100's Munich-based headquarters which opened three months later in October of that same year.
The theme park division, Plopsa, also grew significantly. After taking full control of Plopsaland in 2005, they opened a couple of new theme parks in Hasselt, Dalen and co-opened a theme park in Torzym. The division also owned theme parks in Stavelot, Haßloch, Antwerp, and created water parks in De Panne and Hannuit-Landen. With expansions planned in four countries: Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands.
On 7 February 2020, the ownership of the group shifted again when Vic Swerts and 3D Investors acquired 17% and 8% of the shares respectively. After the transaction Gert Verhulst, Hans Bourlon and BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity had a remaining 25% share each.
In 2020, their animation studio Flying Bark Productions opened a second studio in Los Angeles.
In December 2020, Studio 100 announced their restructing of its international businesses and announced that their New York-based American animation studio Little Airplane Productions's founder and CEO Josh Selig alongside CCO Sharon Gomes had left the acquired American animation studio with the co-CEOs Studio 100's international division Studio 100 Media which were Martin Krieger and Barbara Stephen taking over as the new CEOs of the New York-based animation studio in order for Studio 100 to launch more streamlined international operations during the COVID-19 impact on Studio 100's businesses.
In March 2023, Studio 100 announced the separation of the CEO of their theme park subsidiary Plopsa, Steve Van den Kerkhof after 23 years following the investigation of his toxic behaviour and relationship with Koen Clement taken over Studio 100's theme park subsidiary Plopsa as its intern CEO.
In October 2023, Studio 100 through its global distribution division Studio 100 Media announced their entry into the Spanish animation business by acquiring a stake in Tenerife, Canary Islands-based Spanish animation studio 3 Doubles Producciones as their Spanish animation production studio with Studio 100 Media co-producing and distributing its films and animated series internationally.
In March 2024, Studio 100 entered a major rebrand and announced that they've rebranded their Munich-based global production & international distribution division Studio 100 Media as they renamed it under the new name "Studio 100 International" including their redesigned logo alongside the rebrand of its website and reflecting their expanded role for the entire Studio 100 group with the parent group launching their redesigned logo for its parent alongside their own divisions. The name "Studio 100 International" was previously used by their Benelux division before being renamed to Studio 100 Benelux with the rebranded division announcing a first-look production and distribution partnership with French animation studio Gaumont Animation to co-produce animated shows and feature films with Studio 100.
In September 2024, Studio 100's international distribution division Studio 100 International remastered its library of their classic 1970s animated productions into full HD and brought them into 16:9 widescreen and full HD formats for the first time using AI upscaling process as part of Studio 100's bigger promotional campaign to celebrate its properties multi-generational appeal.
At the start of October 2025, Studio 100's international distribution arm Studio 100 International entered a stragic alliance with French digital-first kids' entertainment company Animaj to reimagine Studio 100's most famous children's brand Maya the Bee to shape the future of the franchise. As part of the deal, French entertainment company Animaj had acquired Studio 100's rights to the property including the 1975, 1979 and 2012 TV series outside of Belgium and German-speaking countries as part of Animaj's international strategy to acquire international IPs and turn them into global franchises with Studio 100 partnering with Animaj to expand the brand to digital & international footprint using the latter's GenAI animation production tools that would lead the franchise's future series content development and international expansion, Studio 100 retained the production, international sales & feature film rights to the Maya the Bee films that they produced including its spin-off Arnie & Barney and would continue overseeing global theme park rights to the franchise in its home country Belgium and German-speaking countries.