Category: Television

4Kids Ent. Inc. will soon give fans instant, 24-hour access to its properties with the launch of the 4Kids TV VOD Channel on Comcast ON DEMAND on Aug. 7, 2006. Featuring many of 4Kids' most popular brands including YU-GI-OH!, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, SONIC X, KIRBY and WINX CLUB, the new VOD Channel will offer 10 hours with new episodes added every two weeks.

AT&T Inc. struck a distribution agreement to deliver MTVN and BET linear, high-definition, on-demand and digital music programming as part of the AT&T U-verse TV channel lineup. Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

BET Networks' newly-minted animation unit will join with Vin Diesel's One Race Prods. to produce HANNIBAL THE CONQUEROR, an animated series based on the life of Hannibal of Carthage, universally recognized as the greatest military leader in the history of the world. The project was jointly announced by Diesel and Reginald Hudlin, BET president of entertainment. One Race vp Samantha Vincent and Diesel will exec produce. Last January, BET announced the formation of BET Animation under the management of Denys Cowan, former producer of the hit animated series THE BOONDOCKS.

Academy Award-nominated Brown Bag Films has just delivered the 52x2 animation series I'M AN ANIMAL for kids 3-6. The series was commissioned by state broadcaster RTE and the Irish Film Board and distributed by Monster Distributes.

Comic-Con International 2006 fans will be the first to watch an exclusive 72-minute special cut of NBCs HEROES pilot episode, created just for the annual event in San Diego. Debuting this fall on Mondays at 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET, HEROES chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover that they possess extraordinary abilities.

STAN LEE'S LIGHTSPEED, the latest in a series of POW! Ent.'s projects, will premiere on NBC Universal's SCI FI Channel. The live-action Stan Lee Original will air the evening of July 26, 2006, at 9:00 pm ET/PT.

Bejuba! Ent. Inc., Snowden Fine Prods. and Studio B Prods. Inc. have announced that RICKY SPROCKET SHOWBIZ BOY will air on Nickelodeon channels in the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Scandinavia in the fall of 2007 and Nicktoons Network in the U.S. The series, created by Alison Snowden and David Fine, the Oscar-winning team behind BOB AND MARGARET, will be co-produced with Vancouvers Studio B Prods. Inc. and distributed by Bejuba! Ent. Inc.

Nexus Prods. has completed a series of animated short films for Animal Planet, Italy.

The films, written and directed by Bessy & Combe, Carolina Melis and Celyn, range from one to three minutes and feature a break dancing cat, a snake-impersonating giraffe and some stampeding mammoths.

The three episodes of MAGIC CAT, directed by Celyn, each tell a tale of a little boy, Paulo, and his sometimes surreal adventures with a mysteriously appearing cat who seems to be able to bend space and time at will.