Interactive Television Entertainment (ITE) was a

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-based Danish company founded in 1988 as SilverRock Productions and renamed to ITE in 1992. It was best known for developing and producing the ''Hugo'' media franchise.

History

The company was founded by Ivan Sølvason in 1988. It was renamed as Interactive Television Entertainment in 1992, following the launch of the first ''Hugo'' TV show in 1990,Firma Historie
, Hugo-Troll.de which was created together with Niels Krogh Mortensen. Following the success of Hugo, the originally very small company would grow to 19 permanent employees and about 50 contracted freelancers by 1994. ITE Media game development and publishing company was founded for the development of ''Hugo'' video game series in 1998. Besides its successful ''Hugo'' shows and game adaptations, the company's television products included the

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

system Animation Mask System (AMS) developed in 1993 and the programs ''Crazy Cartoon Soccer'' (1995), ''The Interactive Cartoon Show'' (1998), ''Stinky & Bäver'' (''Stinky & Stomper)'', ''Throut & Neck'' (1998), ''Sporty'', and ''Tush Tush''. ITE opened overseas offices in

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in 1997, in

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in 1998, and in

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in 1999. By 2005, ITE was regarded as one of Denmark's five largest video game developers. In 2000, ITE had net sales of DKK 66 million. The company released over 190 video games, selling more than six million copies. In 2002, Sølvason was forced to sell all of ITE to the venture capital company Olicom A/S for only DKK 5 million,Hugos far er umulig at slå ud
Erhvervsbladet.dk, 5 September 2007. having lost an earlier offer of DKK 80 million in 2000 due to a 10-minute fax delay by advising company

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

's corporate finance division; Olicom had already owned 50% shares in ITE since 2001 (acquired for DKK10 million). Olicom then invested $22 million into the company,Hugos far bortadopterer tv-trolden
ComON, 16 July 2002. reduced the staff of ITE by a third to 60 employees and attempted to expand more into the U.S., UK, and Asian markets. Olicom in turn sold ITE in 2006, by then staffed by only 35 employees. ITE was purchased by

NDS Group Cisco Videoscape (formerly NDS Group and currently known as Synamedia) was a majority owned subsidiary of News Corp, which develops software for the pay TV industry (including cable, satellite and others). NDS Group was established in 1988 as an ...

for an undisclosed sum and became NDS Denmark; NDS Denmark closed down in 2010,, Reuters
Stort spilfirma drejer nøglen om i Danmark
TV 2 Finans, 19-11-10. but without rights to ''Hugo'' franchise, which was divested to Krea Medie A/S in 2008. ITE's last CEOs were Steen Lohse between January–August 2006, and Jesper Knutsson after him.

References

External links

* (archived) {{Authority control Defunct film and television production companies of Denmark Mass media companies based in Copenhagen Mass media companies established in 1988 Video game companies established in 1988 Mass media companies disestablished in 2006 Video game companies disestablished in 2006 Defunct video game companies of Denmark