Hot Topics:

ER mulls 'Veggie Tales' sale

Company may sell Big Idea

Disney feels 'Touch of the Panda'

'Sita,' 'Idiots' top Annecy festival

Kadokawa asks site to nix links

'Sit Down' writers striking at Sony

'New Moon' wins Thanksgiving box office(3828 views)

Hollywood sea of change(1768 views)

Invictus(1474 views)

'New Moon' crosses $200 million(1368 views)

Paramount lands 'Area 51'(1309 views)

Crazy Heart(828 views)

Troubled U.K. children’s and family specialist Entertainment Rights, whose properties include “Postman Pat” and “Basil Brush,” may sell one of its U.S. businesses to cut debt of some $200 million.

Big Idea, the Nashville-based studio best known for “Veggie Tales,” is being lined up for a possible sale by Entertainment Rights’ CEO Nick Phillips. Big Idea became part of Entertainment Rights when the latter acquired Classic Media in January 2007.

Although it has made coin in the past, the company, which produces fare for the U.S. Christian market, is not one of the business’s more profitable parts, and it needs investment. Phillips succeeded Entertainment Rights’ founder Mike Heap in March following a dismal perf on the U.K. stock market when the combo’s price fell by 73% in a year.

He is leading a strategic review, and one option involves selling Big Idea, whose “Veggie Tales” celebrated its 15th anniversary this month. A spokesman for Entertainment Rights, which is worth just over $100 million, said reports suggesting that Big Idea may soon be for sale were “speculation.”