TeamTO announced new partnerships for their action-comedy animated series Jade Armor (26 x 22′) with the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC), the leading platform for kids programming in Australia, and CBC, Canada’s largest national French broadcaster. The series launched in Australia on November 28 and in French-speaking Canada on November 22.
Jade Armor, an original superheroine series featuring a martial arts-loving teenager, debuted this fall on broadcast partners France Télévisions in France — where it quickly became one of the channel’s top 10 shows — followed by Super RTL in Germany. The show was also acquired by Cartoon Network and HBO Max (U.S., LaAm, EMEA), with a launch in EMEA set for early 2023.
Banijay Kids & Family has been appointed the worldwide distributor across audiovisual, digital, publishing, licensing and merchandising for the classic children’s brand Topo Gigio. BFK will work with existing master toy licensee Giochi Preziosi, and has appointed Ladybug Entertainment’s Elena Picco as a consultant for commercial expansion in Italy.
Originally created by Italian puppet artist Maria Perego in 1959, Topo Gigio has recently been reimagined as a preschool animated comedy series co-produced by Movimenti Production (a BFK company) and Topo Gigio S.r.l. Currently airing a second season on Rai Yoyo and RaiPlay, the 2D animated adventure follows the daily adventures of Topo Gigio, the first mouse to ever live amongst humans, as he strives to solve any problems in the city of Townville, alongside his human and animal friends.
Toonz Entertainment, the content distribution division of Ireland-based global kids and family entertainment major Toonz Media Group, has secured a strategic deal with Sky UK Limited for its CGI-animated preschool TV series Zoonicorn — covering rights for Season 1 (52 x 7′) for Free TV, Basic TV, Pay TV, and SVOD in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Gibraltar and British Forces Overseas Bases.
Sky has acquired the rights for the series for a period of three years starting from February 2023, airing on the new Sky Kids linear channel and available on demand. The series follows a pack of magical creatures who inhabit the dreams of young animals, guiding them through fun-filled dream adventures to build their confidence and decision-making skills before they wake.
Beijing Joy Culture Media (China) has taken sales rights to Riki Group’s animated series DinoCity and Beardy Bodo, with plans to finish adapting the content into Chinese for presentation to leading TV channels and platforms in the territory in the near future. JCM is a children’s animation and home entertainment IP production, operation and marketing company headquartered in Beijing which has cooperated with over 40 animation companies all over the world, exclusively sub-licensing over 120 IPs in mainland China.
DinoCity is an original 2D preschool series about a family of dinosaurs living in a perfectly urban setting. The show has enjoyed successful debuts on DeA Junior (Italy) and Tiny Pop (U.K.), Piwi+ (Canal+ Group, France), YLE (Finland), ERT (Greece), Ketnet (Flemish Belgium), MBC (MENA), Menart (Balkans), Discovery Italia’d Frisbee, All Media Latvia (Baltics), TG4 (Ireland) and Minika (Turkey).
Beardy Bodo is a charming animated comedy that follows the title character, who doesn’t speak any foreign language and can’t tell Australia from The North Pole, as he acts as a travel guide for kids to different places of interest teaching viewers about geography, culture and history of different nations and important tips on what to do while traveling. The series was in official competition at the Chicago Int’l Children’s Film Festival and won the top award at Chinh India Kids Film Festival.
Jetpack Distribution announced a range of deals with networks across Asia for 269 half hours of high quality shows from its burgeoning library of content. Animation deals included:
- Warner Bros. Discovery bought the rights to air Mechamato (Season 1) on Cartoon Network and Dennis the Menace and Gnasher (Seasons 1 & 2) on Cartoon Network and POGO across South Asia
- The Walt Disney Company (Japan) took the rights for Paper Owl’s Ladybird & Bee (Season 1).
- GRT Children’s Channel acquired the rights for The Moe Show for China and Hong Kong.
- Edutainment children’s channel Da Vinci took the rights for Critters TV and Yoko (Seasons 1-3) for Asia, India and the Middle East.
- Astro in Malaysia bought the rights for Spookiz The Movie and Spookiz (Seasons 1-3) for Malaysia and Brunei.
- ETV Balbharat kids channels in India has re-licensed the rights for The Sisters (Season 1).
… Not to Mention:
- Animasia Studio licensed Harry & Bunnie and Chuck Chicken to MBC Group’s kids edutainment channel MBC3 (MENA) — a combined 130 episodes to air in 2023.
- Leo & Tig Season 2 has launched on the Leo & Tig Italia YouTube channel. S1&2 are also available to catch airing daily on Rai Yoyo and on demand via RaiPlay in Italy. The series is produced by Paravoz.
- Bing’s Animal Stories from Acamar Films has also made its Rai Yoyo debut this month, building on the success of Bing on Rai Play since its launch in 2018.
- The loveable rabbit also marked a YouTube milestone in Poland, where Bing hit 1 million subscribers on its official Polish channel. The series also airs on MiniMini+ and PulsKids in Poland.
- Paramount+ grew its global footprint in December, as the streaming service became available in France followed by Germany, Switzerland and Austria, bringing its total markets to 45.
