As 2019 comes to a close so does our coverage of this year’s deals you (may or may not have) missed, but while you’re roasting chestnuts, you can check out our Deals You Missed landing page for a recap. And we’ll be back in the new year with more news than ever before.

D360

Marblemedia-owned Distribution360 (D360) signed several deals across Asia for its kids programming. South Korean broadcaster KTH acquired 504 episodes (various lengths) of Skyship Entertainment’s preschool content, including Super Simple Songs, Super Simple Draw, Paper Puppet Playhouse and Milo‘s Monster School Vlog.

Broadcaster Da Vinci picked up GAPC Entertainment-produced MathXplosion (50 x three minutes) to air in China and India; ScienceXplosion (45 x 3.5 minutes) for India; Spellz (52 x 12 minutes) for Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and China; and Forte Entertainment’s photographic series Snapshots (six x 30 minutes) to air in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.

Thailand network True Visions and Hong Kong’s telecom company PCCW also picked up MathXplosion. True Vision picked up The Super Simple Show (52 x 11 minutes) and Super Simple Draw (26 x seven minutes), while PCCW acquired marblemedia’s crafting show Super Mighty Makers (13 x 30 minutes).

Sky

Comcast-owned British broadcaster Sky picked up the family film Four Kids and It from LA-based distributor 13 Films, for a theatrical and TV release via Pay TV channel Sky Cinema in April 2020.

Produced by Julie Baines of Dan Films and Anne Brogan of Kindle Entertainment, the movie follows four kids who discover a magical creature with the power to make wishes come true.

Based on the book by English children’s writer Jacqueline Wilson, the film is co-produced by Jonathan Taylor and Paul Donovan. T&B Media Global’s Jwanwat Ahriyavraromp, Tannaz Anisi and Gregory Schenz for 13 Films and Geraldine East are EPs. The film is written by Simon Lewis (Tiger House, The Anomaly) with additional writing by Mark Oswin (Danger Mouse, 4 O’clock Club).

Animaccord 

Cyprus-based media and licensing company Animaccord secured the first Chinese broadcast deal for animated series Masha and the Bear. ByteDance-owned platform Xigua Video will release season one and two and the show’s Masha’s Tales spin-off in January 2020, to coincide with the Chinese New Year.

As part of the licensing deal, Xigua will also launch season three in 2022, and will support the toon’s launch with a marketing campaign on Xigua and ByteDance’s news platform Toutiao. Beijing-based ByteDance is also the owner of popular video sharing service TikTok.

PBS KIDS

Growing its gaming offerings, PBS KIDS has partnered with Boston-based pubcaster WGBH to launch the interactive game Scribbles and Ink, which lets kids create their own drawings that the game’s characters can interact with.

Produced by WGBH and based on an an eponymous book series by illustrator Ethan Long, the game also includes three standalone videos and six printable activities to promote offline art-making. It is aimed at kids four to eight and available at PBSKIDS.org and the PBS Kids Games app.

Beyond Distribution

London-based Beyond Distribution has picked up Keyframe Studios’s CG-animated preschool series Zeze Zebra (pictured) for worldwide distribution, excluding the UK.

Keyframe debuted the show at MIPCOM this year and previously sold the 20 x two-minute series to Hopster, Kidoodle.TV, Ketchup TV, BT TV Kids (UK) and Hop! (Israel). Targeting kids two to four, the 20 x two minute series features popular nursery rhymes sung by Zeze Zebra and her animal friends.