Imira, Entertainment One and Hoho Entertainment among the wheelers and dealers.
As MIPCOM 2017 hits its midway point, the number of animated TV deals being made continues to rise. Here’s the latest:
- Imira Entertainment closed a 150-plus territory pay-TV distribution deal with Viacom International Media Networks’ Nickelodeon across the EMEA, Latin America and Asia Pacific markets for the new non-dialogue slapstick comedy series Zelly Go.
- Entertainment One has entered into a global partnership with Merlin Entertainments to develop and operate location-based entertainment attractions based on its popular preschool license, Peppa Pig. The deal covers all territories excluding the U.K. and Merlin will have exclusive rights for all location based entertainment formats with the exception of China, which will be licensed to Merlin on a non-exclusive basis.
- Hoho Entertainment signed a deal with Wow Dadi Technology to launch Cloudbabies in mainland China. Wow Dadi has acquired the distribution and merchandising rights to series one and has also committed to investing in the production of series two, which Hoho and Wow Dadi will co-produce under a new U.K.-China co-production treaty, expected to be ratified soon by the Chinese government.
- Animation Collective founder and former CEO Larry Schwarz has re-purchased Animation Collective, its subsidiaries, IP assets and library of several hundred episodes of kids programming from Handmade Films. Handmade purchased Animation Collective in October 2009 as part of a roll up in the kids business.
- Anima Estudios, SLR Productions, Home Plate Entertainment together with Telegael announced Bejuba! Entertainment has taken over the international distribution of the animated comedy series Teenage Fairytale Dropouts. As part of the new distribution deal for the series, the 52 x 11 minute series has been renamed Awesome Magical Tales.
- Kew Media Group signed a letter of intent to acquire a stake in Jeff Norton’s London-based Awesome Media & Entertainment, further expanding Kew’s position as a leading independent creative group in the entertainment industry. Awesome recently announced the co-development of Stomp School with Cloth Cat Animation, based on Jeff Norton and Leo Antolini’s debut picture book.
- BES Animation and Jetpack Distribution inked several new platform deals for its animated children’s show Kitty is Not a Cat with DeAgostini Editore in Italy and Disney in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East and Turkey, and in Australia with co-investment partner Seven Network.
- Canadian animation giant Nelvana, part of the Corus Entertainment group, has signed its first deal with MoMedia, under which the London-based distributor will represent the first series of Babar and the Adventures of Badou (26 x 24 mins) and Little Charmers (80 x 11 mins) for distribution on both local and worldwide SVOD streaming platforms. MoMedia has already placed both series on Scandinavian SVOD service Viaplay Nordic.
- APC Kids has secured a raft of new deals with broadcasters across Europe and Canada for its animated kids’ series Kid-E-Cats. The deal will see the show broadcast on YLE Finland, TG4 in Ireland, TV Puls in Poland, as well as Knowledge Network in Canada.
- Ink Global has revealed that season three of Masha and the Bear will debut on France 5 this November.
Tom McLean has been writing for years about animation from a secret base in Los Angeles.
