As COVID-19 continues to affect the industry, a lot of deals have been placed on the back burner to deal with the ever-evolving situation. But business hasn’t stalled completely. Here are some of the important ones from this week.

Spin Master

Toronto-based Spin Master launched its animated series Zo Zo Zombie (pictured) yesterday on streaming service Crunchyroll. The prodco partnered with Japan’s ShoPro to make the 100 x three-minute anime comedy about an undead protagonist and his human best friend.

The brand began as a manga in Japan, so Spin Master wanted to launch on Crunchyroll to capitalize on its reach with anime-loving audiences, says Spin Master’s VP of communications and CSR, Tammy Smitham.

eOne

Chinese broadcaster CCTV-14 has picked up eOne’s Ricky Zoom (52 x 11 minutes) to start airing March 23. The CG-animated show tracks a motorbike’s adventures in a town made for bikes. Co-produced by Italy’s Maga Animation and France’s TeamTO, eOne has previously raced the action-comedy into broadcast deals with Nick Jr. and Channel 5’s preschool block Milkshake! (UK), Gulli (France), Discovery Kids (LatAm) and Nick Jr. (US). A second season (52 x 11 minutes) is in production, and set for delivery in November.

Mondo TV Iberoamerica

Prodco Mondo TV Iberoamerica has closed the first US sales for all three seasons of its 2D/3D-animated series Sissi the Young Empress, as well as season one of action-comedy Invention Story (104 x 11 minutes).

Mondo has sold both series to US pay TV company Vme Media for distribution on its English-language network Primo TV, which targets Hispanic Gen Z viewers (six to 16).

Novel Entertainment

Hear that? Kids content creator Novel Entertainment has launched 10 audio versions of its animated series Horrid Henry worldwide on Spotify, Audible, iTunes and Amazon. The 250  x 11-minute animated series about a young troublemaker targets six- to 11-year-olds, and is available on a number of international broadcasters, including ABC (Australia), Mediacorp (Singapore), Gulli (France) and Hulu (US).

 With files from Elizabeth Foster.