Here is a look at some of the deals that have been inked at this week’s market in Cannes, France:
• Aardman Rights has concluded a number of pre-sales for its two new animated series Wallace & Gromit In A Matter of Loaf and Death and Timmy Time. The new Wallace & Gromit series will now be seen around the world including: ABC TV Australia, M6 France, Super RTL Germany, YLE Finland, NRK Norway, Zapp Netherlands and SVT Sweden. Timmy Time has been picked up by ABC TV Australia, TF1 France, DRTV in Denmark, YLE Finland, NRK Norway and SVT Sweden.
• New York-based Animation Collective and France’s Canal have inked a broadcast deal for Three Delivery, Ellen’s Acres, Jolly Rabbit and HTDT. Each of the original series was created by Larry Schwarz, founder and CEO of Animation Collective. Three Delivery will premiere in early 2009 on YTV and SRC in Canada, Nickelodeon Australia, and CBBC in the UK. The show is scheduled to premiere on October 27 on Canal +. Ellen’s Acres, a 52 x 11 minute pre-school series, will launch on ABC (Australia), Al Jazeera, Spacetoon (Indonesia) and True Corp (Thailand) and will air on CANAL+’s preschool channel PIWI. Jolly Rabbit will air on CBBC in the UK and ABC Australia and HTDT has been ordered by CW 4Kids for broadcast in the US on Saturday mornings and will air in France on Canal +.
•TV-Loonland has inked a deal with CBBC for its new CGI animated comedy series, Leon, a 52 x 3 minutes comedy series. CBBC has committed to a pre-buy deal for exclusive TV and ´catch-up´ rights in the UK. Leon is a co-pro between TV-Loonland, Studio Hari and France 3, with TV-Loonland holding all rights worldwide.
• Chorion has signed a raft of major international broadcast partners for its brand new children’s television series Olivia, based on the book property. The company has secured deals with TF1 in France, Nick Jr UK, Treehouse in Canada, Danmarks Radio and The Walt Disney Company Latin America for the pre-school animated series. The series will begin airing worldwide from spring 2009.
• Decode Enterprises’ Animal Mechanicals produced by Halifax Film, and commissioned by CBC in Canada, has been licensed to The Disney Channels in the UK and Asia; Radio-Canada, Discovery Latin America, Romania’s HOP, EBS in Korea; Al-Jazeera Children Channel.