Animation sector strikes sales deals as Screen Ireland-supported projects travel around the world
Posted: 28th November 2019
The Irish animation industry has long been a creative cornerstone of Ireland’s vibrant screen industry and the sector has experienced substantial growth in the last decade, thanks to its international reputation for excellence and its global outlook. This quarter marks a busy sales period for the animation sector, with a plethora of deals struck for Screen Ireland-funded projects from home-grown animation studios.
Below is a selection of the international broadcasters and SVOD platforms who have recently acquired Irish content for young audiences around the world:
- The Kilkenny-based Lighthouse Studios' second production If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Season 2 launched on Amazon Prime this September, alongside a range of toys in the US. Working with sister company Mercury Filmworks, Lighthouse is nearing completion on the 52 x 11min episodes and is hugely proud of the work.
- Pink Kong’s Urban Tails has been sold to SVODs Kidsy and Azoomee. Currently airing on RTEjr, Urban Tails is the ultimate Music Show starring Awesome Animals from YOUR city. Each episode is a brand-new music video filled with funny factual character driven content, inspired by the classic Hip-Hop and R’N’B videos of the 1990s.
- JAM Media’s innovative preschool series Becca’s Bunch continues its global adventure, securing a slew of new international broadcast deals with SVT (Sweden), NRK (Norway), YLE (Finland) and RTS (Switzerland), which join a growing list of international broadcasters already on board, such as Nickelodeon (Global), ABC (Australia), CBC (Canada), France TV (France), KiKA (Germany) and Channel 5’s Milkshake! in the UK.
- 2020 will see Piranha Bar’s preschool series MyaGo launch in multiple territories around the world, starting in the UK on Channel 5’s Milkshake! Co-produced with Irish studio Piranha Bar and Motion Pictures Entertainment, the show has also been picked up by RTP in Portugal and ETB for the Basque region in Spain, on HOP! (Israel) in December 2019, TVE’s Clan (Spain) and SVT (Sweden). In addition, Motion Pictures has sold MyaGo to Discovery Kids (MENA), where the first season started airing in September 2019. These latest sales join existing broadcasters currently airing the series including RTEjr (Ireland), Club Super 3 (TV Catalunya), Clan (Spain) and TVNZ (New Zealand). In Brazil, the series launched on SVOD platform Globoplay in September 2019 and will air on pre-school channel Gloobinho from March 2020.
- Season 4 of Wiggleywoo’s popular preschool series The Day Henry Met… has completed production and will premiere on Nick Jr in the UK in January 2020 before airing on Nick Jr in 178 countries. Other broadcasters who will air Season 4 include RTEjr, TV3 Catalunya in Spain, TVP in Poland, Ceska in the Czech Republic, Viaplay SVOD in Scandinavia. In addition to this, the first 3 seasons have recently been sold to Playkids, OCS, iDipper all for SVOD and TV Azteca in Mexico, as well a range of licensing deals finalised for merchandise and book lines.
- Salty Dog Pictures’ Brewster the Rooster has been acquired by Olympusat for Spanish-speaking North American and Latin American broadcast, CJE&M for Korean broadcast and by Emirates Airlines.
- Monster Entertainment’s I’m a Fish has been acquired by YLE in Finland and Media Mundi SVOD, EPIC SVOD, Indignenius for SVOD, Kidoodle for AVOD, JY Animation for China SVOD, Hopster for SVOD.
- Ink & Light’s Harry & Bip has been sold to SRC in Canada, BT in the UK, JCG in Korea, Beijing Flying Fish Culture in China, Trenitalia for Italian trains and Telecoming for African mobile.
- Igloo Productions’ Peek Zoo has been sold to KiKa in Germany, YLE in Finland, Fauna for SVOD.