DISTRIBUTION360 BUILDS SUCCESS IN ANIMATION
TORONTO, CANADA (February 8, 2019) Distribution360 announces international sales across 8 animation series ahead of Kidscreen 2019, with award-winning digital stop motion program, George & Paul launching in new international markets.
Distribution360 (D360) has secured sales for its upper preschool property, George & Paul (26 x 5’). Broadcaster and platform deals have been agreed with CITV’s preschool block LittleBe (UK), Daeyko Kids (South Korea), Jetsen Huashi Wangju (China) via a deal with Bomanbridge, Hop (Israel), YLE (Finland), RTV (Slovenia) and TVNZ Kidzone (New Zealand). The imaginative series, produced by Pedri Animation, Beast Animation & Ka-Ching Cartoons for NTR and Ketnet features two best buddies who live in a world made of blocks that they utilize in clever inventions to help in their adventures, encouraging creative play and problem-solving. The series is a previous recipient of the Cinekid Best Animation Award.
D360 has also kicked off sales of the CBeebies preschool series Treasure Champs (30 x 15’/30 x 4’), produced by Three Arrows Media, closing deals with CJEMN in Korea and TVOkids in Canada. The series follows the heartwarming adventures of two animated characters who explore a different value —such as generosity, courage and patience— in each episode. The series is available as a 15 minute mixed media animation/live action series, or as 4 minute animation-only shorts.
Across their catalogue of animation, D360 has finalized a number of new deals with international buyers for Yaya & Zouk, Genius Genie, Alphabet Stories, YOUniverse, Nico Can Dance and Atomic Betty. Mixed-media property YOUniverse (25 x 2.15’) has been picked up by TVNZ Kidzone (NZ), and renewed for the Hopster App. YOUniverse, along with Alphabet Stories (26 x 1.5’), was also picked up by Discovery Kids for their global streaming app, Alphabet Stories was also renewed with Hopster and Epic! Creations (US) for their streaming service. Nico Can Dance (65 x 2’) has been licensed by Prava i Prevodi in Serbia, along with season one of perennially popular series Atomic Betty (26 x 30’).
ToonDraw Animation’s series continue to find success with series 1 of YaYa & Zouk (78 x 5’) going to Jetsen Huashi Wangju for Mainland China. And their new preschool series, Genius Genie (78 x 5’) has been licensed by YLE in Finland and First HDTV Russia.
D360 will be attending Kidscreen Summit next week, with animation acquisitions on their agenda, alongside further sales of their current animation and live action catalogue.
“2019 is off to a great start for our children’s slate and we are excited to see these amazing kids titles reach more international audiences. We carry this success into Kidscreen where we will be looking for new partnerships on both the production and broadcast side to build on this momentum”, says Diane Rankin, SVP International, Distribution360