TIS Productions, commonly known as just TIS[2] and formerly known as The Independent Studios, Estudios TeleMéxico, Fox TeleColombia and TeleColombia, is a Colombian
television production company owned by the
Paramount Networks Americas division of
Paramount Global. Founded in 1996 by Samuel Duque, René Gómez[1] and
Bernardo Romero Pereiro as a production company owned by the latter, who is also a claimed
librettist of Colombian dramatizations and soap operas, the company is known for supplying programming to
Telemundo,
Telefutura,
RCN Televisión and the channels of the defunct former national broadcaster,
Inravisión.
In 2009, Fox produced filmed Mental, the first television series produced in Latin America for its eponymous American and international channels,[6] at the Fox Telecolombia complex in
Bogotá,[7] but it only lasted for a season.[8]
Following the completed
acquisition of
21st Century Fox by
The Walt Disney Company on 20 March 2019, Fox TeleColombia was placed under the direct supervision of
The Walt Disney Company Latin America alongside
Disney Channel. On 18 January 2021, Disney dropped the "Fox" word from the company's name, hence renaming it to just TeleColombia, in line with the acquisition terms which required phasing out the "Fox" brand to avoid confusion with the spun-out
Fox Corporation.
On 28 October 2021,
Paramount Global, at the time known as ViacomCBS, announced its acquisition of a majority stake in the company from Disney, which closed on 23 November that year,[9][10][11][12] thus changing sister stations to
Nickelodeon, whiles keeping the company's founders on board with their roles from a creative and advisory point of view.[13][14] Paramount then merged Estudios TeleMexico and TeleColombia into one and reverted the latter company's name back to TIS (in homage to its founding name) on 22 October 2022.[2]