Fans of the hit STARGATE television franchise will rejoice this spring when Sci Fi presents the U.S. premiere of STARGATE: THE ARK OF TRUTH and STARGATE: CONTINUUM. Beginning on Friday, March 27 at 9 p.m./ET, get set for THE ARK OF TRUTH and then tune in on Friday, April 3 at 9 p.m./ET for CONTINUUM.
marblemedia has acquired the North American format rights to produce a version of the popular Cartoon Network U.K. series SKATOONY. Currently in its third season on Cartoon Network, the successful television program pits real kids against cartoon characters in an animated quiz game show format.
The first season enters production this spring and will shoot 13 half-hour English and 13 half-hour French episodes. The series, aimed at kids aged 8 to 12, has been commissioned for TELETOON Canada and is set to premiere in Spring 2010.
What if kids could get involved with predicting their own snow days -- or hit-the-beach days? Beginning Monday, April 20 on PBS KIDS GO! (check local listings), they can find out a lot more about weather with one of their favorite animated series. CYBERCHASE is launching a new seventh-season "Weather Watchers" initiative that brings climate issues front and center with new episodes, a challenging new online game, and rich outreach activities.
3ality Digital's 3D production studio was responsible for shooting the footage used in the first-ever all-3-D episode of a scripted television series, CHUCK, which aired on NBC on February 2, 2009.
Spain's Imira Ent. has signed its first co-finance and distribution deal with Italian production company Neo Network, part of Zodiak Entertainment Group, for new series SOS CUPIDS (52x2'30).
RaiSat, the satellite pay TV offering of the Italian Public Broadcaster Rai (Radio Televisione Italiana) is already on board as a partner and Imira is seeking further partners for the 2D digital HD animated show, which it will distribute worldwide (except Italy).
Portfolio Ent. has 200 episodes of combined sales in a variety of territories in Europe, Africa and Asia for animated tween comedy series, CARL2; children's astronomy program, HEADS UP!; preschool puppet series, IGLOO-GLOO and animated adventure series, TOAD PATROL.
TV-Loonland will be handling worldwide distribution across all media for MISTER OTTER. Produced by French boutique studio, La Station Animation in coproduction with French terrestrial broadcaster France 3 and TV-Loonland, MISTER OTTER is animated in 3D but has a 2D look. The series is directed by Ahmidou Lyazidi and is set for full delivery in April 2009.
Based on a concept by author Marguerite Sauvage, the show is an eccentric approach to learning. Viewers will discover a miscellany of fascinating cultural facts and the truth behind momentous moments in history.
Animated preschool hit WOW! WOW! WUBBZY! continues to wow children around the globe, setting new viewership benchmarks on Nick Jr. domestically, garnering high ratings in multiple markets and picking up distribution in additional key global territories.
The Emmy Award-winning WUBBZY is now being shown on HOP! TV in Israel and Al Jazeera Children's Channel in the Middle East, both of which recently launched. WOW! WOW! WUBBZY! was also an instant hit on Super RTL in Germany when it debuted in late September.
Last purchased by Rede Record in Brazil, Mediatoon's THE GARFIELD SHOW is due for broadcast in 2009 in the U.K., Scandinavia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Australia/Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Produced by Dargaud Media, THE GARFIELD SHOW is 52 episodes of 11 minutes shot in HD, about Garfield's day-to-day life, blending the modern look of CGI animation and familiar humor of the orange tabby cat.
Toothy fiends, giant cats, exploding pigeons, screaming vegetables, and hungry mailboxes -- your television will never be the same. Independent animator Amy Winfrey's popular web series MAKING FIENDS is now also a full length television series on the Nicktoons network. MAKING FIENDS debuted on Nicktoons in October 2008, and is currently the channel's highest rated original program. Episodes air every Saturday at 12 p.m. ET. A special marathon featuring all the television episodes will be airing on February 15 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET.
NBC Universal Global Networks has launched Universal Channel and Sci Fi Channel on now TV in Hong Kong in January 2009.
The move is part of NBCU Global Network's ongoing channels expansion in Asia and central to the company's objective, led by Roma Khanna, President, Global Networks & Digital Initiatives, to grow to over 100 channels internationally by 2010.
Universal Channel (now TV channel 522) and Sci Fi (now TV channel 124) are available with traditional Chinese subtitling.
Lucasfilm Animation's STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS will debut internationally on 23 different feeds of Cartoon Network in 19 languages on Feb. 13.
The show, which is wrapping up its run on the U.S. Cartoon Network before heading over to TNT, will air in Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore) and Taiwan starting Feb. 13.
DECODE Enterprises has signed deals with the Disney Channel in Southeast Asia and Latin America for new puppet series, MIGHTY JUNGLE (46x11).
Disney Channel Southeast Asia has acquired both seasons for Playhouse Disney and Disney Channel Latin America has picked up the first episodes of the show ,which is produced by Halifax Film and commissioned by CBC in Canada.
Nickelodeon U.K. had a record-breaking 2008, achieving the highest viewing share since it launched in 1993, making it the top U.K. kids' TV network (with a 14.4 percent share of viewing), ahead of Disney Network, BBC Kids and Turner Kids.
Eden FX, a Hollywood-based creator of visual effects for feature films, television programs and commercials, has created a number of CG visual effects for a special network television presentation in 3-D for an upcoming episode of NBC's CHUCK.
Digital animation and visual effects studio Keyframe Digital Productions recently delivered 184 VFX shots for the upcoming four-hour NBC miniseries, XIII, starring Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer. Jay Firestone's Prodigy Pictures, based in Toronto, and French company Cipango Films co-produced the miniseries in association with Power in the U.K.
New episodes of Disney's laugh-out-loud animated comedy series, PHINEAS AND FERB, will roll out on Disney XD (currently known as Toon Disney) and in streaming video on DisneyXD.com, beginning Monday, February 16 with a 17-episode PHINEAS AND FERB TV marathon (8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., ET/PT). It ushers in a new episode (4:30 p.m., ET/PT), guest starring Geraldo Rivera, in which exasperated sister Candace finally gets Mom to see first-hand the outrageous antics of her brothers, Phineas and Ferb.
Zoic Studios, known for producing creative content for advertising and episodic television, saw these worlds unite when tapped for the main titles for the new series TRUST ME, which premiered January 26 on TNT. TRUST ME centers on creative partners at a successful ad agency and is the brainchild of Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny, who have a decades of combined experience in the advertising world, having worked for J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago before making the foray into television.
On the heels of MARTHA SPEAKS and KID VS KAT in 2008, Studio B Productions Inc., a production subsidiary of DHX Media Ltd. and Slap Happy Cartoons have signed a development deal for 2D animated series B.O.O.M. Boys, created by Slap Happy Cartoons.
Targeting kids 6-11, B.O.O.M. BOYS is a 52x11 comedy series about three bionic brothers, Flip, Ollie and Kick, who build out-of-this world inventions while escaping the grasp of the evil military agency that developed them. The boys have to lay low, but that's hard to do when you're 13 and super-charged.
In a timely salute to the talent of the late, great Tony Hart, ESQUIRE magazine celebrates the 30th anniversary of Morph, the character Hart made famous, by making him a first-time wardrobe of custom-made clothes and turning him into a magazine cover star. Kitted out in his specially-made designer clothes by labels such as Burberry, Gucci and Prada, Morph graces ESQUIRE's fashion pages as well as a special limited-edition front cover of the upmarket men's magazine. Each of Morph's outfits is a miniature recreation of the original.
4Kids Ent. has signed broadcast agreements with RTL2 (Germany) and Digiturk (Turkey) to air the first season of the CHAOTIC animated TV series, as well as agreements with TEN NetworkMBC (Middle East Broadcasting) and Rede TV (Brazil) to air the series' second season, entitled CHAOTIC: M'ARRILLIAN INVASION.
This follows the recent pickup of CHAOTIC's second season by TELETOON in Canada and Disney/Jetix Latin America.
Rock star Meat Loaf has joined a surreal new TV series aimed at helping children learn how to read, according to YAHOO NEWS U.K. The 13 episode CiTV series is based around picture books read by celebrity guests to a rock star dog called Bookaboo, who needs to hear "a story a day or he just can't play."
U.K. children's rights owner and producer Spellbound Ent. has two new broadcast and publishing deals in Europe for its preschool series, THE KOALA BROTHERS. Both deals were brokered by Spanish producer and distributor Imira Ent., who has also been appointed as Spellbound's licensing agent for the Spanish market.
State broadcaster TVE in Spain has bought the free TV rights to all 39x30 episodes of THE KOALA BRothers. TVE joins a growing list of public broadcasters to have picked up the series.
Lucasfilm Animation's animated series STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, which has enjoyed a spectacular run on Cartoon Network, is coming to TNT for an encore run this February.
The network will kick off the series with back-to-back episodes presented in high-definition Saturday, Feb. 14, at 11 p.m. (ET/PT), immediately following TNT's NBA All-Star Saturday Night. TNT will then present back-to-back episodes in the series' regular timeslot, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), beginning Feb. 18.
TV-Loonland and The Illuminated Film Company have furthered an already strong partnership in producing a third season of animated preschool show, LITTLE PRINCESS. Continuing the worldwide success of the first two series and two additional 22 minute specials, now airing in over 165 countries, the third season commissioned by Five's Milkshake! will feature 35 additional episodes introducing a number of new characters and locations. A total of 104 episodes will therefore be airing across the globe from 2010 following the series premiere on Milkshake!.
