EM.TV AG has secured exclusive distribution rights for free-TV, pay-TV and home entertainment to the 3D-animated series ZOÉ KÉZAKO from French production studio Sparkling. The German broadcast rights to the program were subsequently licensed to ZDF, which will premiere the series on KI.KA, the childrens channel owned jointly by German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD. ZOÉ KÉZAKO will start screening on Dec. 8, 2004. In the home entertainment sector, Universal Family Ent. will exploit the series on DVD.
Matthias Schulze, managing director of EM.Entertainment GmbH and Junior.TV GmbH & Co. KG said, "With ZOÉ KÉZAKO, we continue to pursue our strategy to extend our target groups [The] series makes an ideal addition to our rights library, which consists largely of programs for pre-school kids. Not only that, but [ZOÉ KÉZAKO] also holds enormous potential with regard to merchandising products.
ZOÉ KÉZAKO (26x13) is a co-production from Sparkling, TF1 and TELETOON TPS Jeunesse, and has already been placed with numerous international TV stations, including SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), RTBF (Belgium), Radio Canada and Teletoon (Canada). French station TF1 began screening the series on Sept. 1, 2004.
The animated 3D show is based on the kids' books by French author-illustrator Véronique Saüquère and has already won Best TV Series for Children and Best Character of the Year at Italy's Cartoons on the Bay Pulcinella Awards. The show chronicles the adventures of a seven-year-old girl and her friends. Bustling and full of life, Zoé speaks her mind about all those things that other people think are unimportant.
EM.TV AG produces and distributes worldwide programs for children and youth markets, as well as markets the merchandising rights to the shows. With around 25,000 half-hour episodes, the companys library is one of the worlds largest. The second strategic core segment, Sport, encompasses the European merchandising rights for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, as well as shareholdings in sports broadcaster DSF and the online platform Sport1. EM.TV also holds 100% of PLAZAMEDIA, Germanys largest TV production company in the sport sector. For more information, visit www.em-ag.de.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
