BBC Children’s Has Ordered A Trio Of New Shows For CBeebies and CBBC (BBC Kids)

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For CBeebies, the pubcaster has commissioned Mojo Swoptops (52 x 11 minutes) from Blue Zoo and Tararaboom. The CG-animated preschool series stars an anthropomorphic vehicle who solves the problems in his local community by literally donning new headgear, such as helicopter blades. The series is based on Cindy Black’s book series of the same name.

CBeebies has also greenlit the animated series Rafi the Wishing Wizard from BBC Studios Kids & Family Productions, about a family of modern-day wizards who face the challenges of living in a bustling city.

And for the six-to-12 demo, CBBC has ordered Black Dog Television’s Pickle Storm (10 x 22 minutes), a live-action series about the adventures of a nine-year-old who has to leave his fantasy world and seek refuge in the UK.

In renewal news, CBeebies has reupped Maramedia’s

animated/live-action preschool series Olga da Polga (13 x 11 minutes) for a second season. It’s about an eight-year-old girl, her family and her pet guinea pig, and is based on a book series by Michael Bond (who is better known as the creator of Paddington Bear.)

CBBC has also renewed 9 Story Media Group’s A Kind of Spark for a second season. Based on the same-name book by Elle McNicoll, the series premiered on CBBC in April. Season two will continue the story of Addie, a neurodivergent 11-year-old girl who solves mysteries.

The BBC has been busy adding content to CBeebies and CBBC lately. Just last week, the pubcaster ordered a Hey Duggee preschool spinoff from Studio AKA called Hey Duggee’s Squirrel Club (26 x seven minutes), as well as renewing the original series for a 20 x seven-minute fifth season. And earlier this month, the broadcaster partnered with Toronto-based Sinking Ship Entertainment to produce a UK version of the live-action series Odd Squad (12 x 30 minutes).

BBC Studios Kids & Family Orders Hey Duggee Spinoff

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BBC Studios Kids & Family and CBeebies have commissioned new preschool series Hey Duggee’s Squirrel Club from Studio AKA.

A spinoff of the London-based prodco’s Hey Duggee, the new 2D-animated series centers around a friendly dog who encourages his animal friends to try new things. A release date hasn’t yet been announced for the 26 x seven-minute show.

BBC Studios Kids & Family and CBeebies have also renewed the original Hey Duggee series for a 20 x seven-minute fifth season, which will premiere sometime in 2025. 

Since its debut on CBeebies in December 2014, several broadcasters have picked up Hey Duggee, including Nick Jr. (US), Tencent Video (China) and Cartoonito (Italy). The show remains popular—it was the most streamed CBeebies title on BBC iPlayer in 2022 and the second most-watched series on CBeebies between January and August this year, according to the pubcaster.

Hey Duggee also made the leap from screen to stage this year with Hey Duggee The Live Theatre Show, which ran in the UK from December 2022 to August 2023. BBC Studios handles the IP’s consumer products rights, and to date has signed 28 L&M partners in the UK alone, including master toy partner Golden Bear.

Transformers: Earthspark Inked To More International Broadcasters

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Hasbro has locked in ABC Australia as a new broadcast partner for its CG-animated adventure series Transformers: EarthSpark (26 x 22 minutes).

The first 10 episodes of this family-friendly show from eOne and Paramount will debut in December on linear channel ABC ME and the ABC iview streamer. The remaining 16 episodes will air next year. 

The show will join several other eOne series already in ABC’s lineup, including Peppa Pig and PJ Masks .

Hasbro has been paving the way for EarthSpark‘s Australian expansion this month, launching toys related to the show at mass retailers throughout the country.

The series premiered globally on Paramount+ in 2022, and eOne inked deals for the toon earlier this year with several international broadcasters, including Gulli (France), Channel 5 (Singapore), TV Cultura (Brazil) and Super! (Italy). In July, the

BBC picked it up for CBBC and BBC iPlayer, where it’s among the top-10 most-watched shows on the app, according to a release.

WBD Unveils European Launch Details For Max Streamer Including In France As International Boss Gerhard Zeiler Talks Up Synergies: “We Are On The Way To $5B And Who Knows Where We Will End Up?” – Mipcom Cannes

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The Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Max streamer will launch in 22 European countries in spring 2024 and France and Belgium later next year, the media outfit revealed today.

Opening Mipcom Cannes with a keynote, interntional boss Gerhard Zeiler and EMEA Head of Streaming Leah Hooper Rosa brought highly-anticipated news of the rollout of the new streamer in the continent, which is rebranding from HBO Max with a bigger offering.

The Nordics, the Netherlands, Iberia and CEE, which already have HBO Max, will gain access to the rebranded streamer in the spring.

There will then be a “second wave” of launches later next year including in France and Belgium, which currently don’t have HBO Max, although WBD has an output deal with Amazon locally in France.

The service launched earlier this year in the U.S. and other territories. It will launch later in the UK due to the pre-existing content deal between Sky and WBD.

“The content breadth is so huge and we are enabling customers to find this content,” added Hooper Rosa. “And then they are increasing their time watching this breadth of genre, so streaming provides another avenue that compliments our distribution.”

“We promised the market $3B synergies, now we are on the way to $5B and who knows where we will end up?,” Zeiler went on to say.

He talked up the success that WBD has had with its goal to “execute as efficiently as possible” its “defining mission and vision.”

Following the Warner Bros merger with Discovery, new boss David Zaslav said he was targeting $3B synergies, which has seen the merger of teams and thousands of layoffs, but that synergy figure has crept up and up, confirmed by Zeiler today to be approaching $5B by next year.

He reiterated a “culture eats strategy for breakfast” mantra and said “we are one company not six or seven diluted units.”

Zeiler has seen something off an exodus in his international team of late but this wasn’t addressed at Mipcom. He set a new team earlier this month following a spate of exits including the likes Priya Dogra, Pierre Branco and Hannes Heyelmann alongside Robert Blair, who had worked in Warner Bros sales for 25 years.

‘Martin Mystery’ Gets First-Ever 3D Series with Powerkids & Bonneli

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Powerkids Entertainment Ltd. (Singapore) and Boneli Entertainment (Italy), the production arm of publisher Sergio Bonneli Editore S.p.A., have joined forces to crack the first-ever 3D CG-animated series based on the popular children’s character Martin Mystère, a.k.a. Martin Mystery. The comics introduced by SBE in 1982 follows the titular hero, an adventurous Renaissance man who applies his broad knowledge of history and antiquities to unravel enigmatic events around the world.

Created by Italian comic-book legend Alfredo Castelli, Martin’s adventures have sold millions of copies across Europe as well as a 2D animated series that premiered 20 years ago. Martin Mystère: The New Animated Series will feature state-of-the-art animation techniques and storytelling crafted to appeal to all ages, according to the producers.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Bonneli Entertainment, the production arm of the comic-book publisher Sergio Bonneli Editore, on this exciting new project,” said Manoj Mishra, CEO of Powerkids Entertainment. “Our goal is to bring Martin Mystère, a.k.a. Martin Mystery, to life in a way that will engage and inspire viewers around the world, and we believe that this new 3D animated series will do just that.”

Series executive producer Vincenzo Sarno, Head of Property Business Development for Sergio Bonneli Editore and Bonneli Entertainment, commented, “Togetherness, for me, means teamwork. We are very proud of our vast slate of comic books that have entertained generations and are distributed across the globe. Now, we want to bring our legends to life through animation to entertain both existing and a new generation of viewers. We want to broadly share the wonderful universe of SBE.

“We are very excited to partner with Powerkids Entertainment, to develop and bring these characters, comic books and stories to life. We are confident that our partnership will be an incredible success given the experience and long track record of Powerkids Entertainment’s management team.”

Powerkids Entertainment will produce and distribute the 3D animated series globally. Production is due to begin at the end of this year, with a release date set for the later part of 2025. Additional details will be announced in due time.

Dragon Ball To Return With New Anime Series Dragon Ball: DAIMA To Commemorate 40th Anniversary

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The first trailer for the upcoming Dragon Ball DAIMA anime premiere was shown at the franchise’s panel at the 2023 New York Comic Con on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Previously leaked with the subtitle Magic rather than DAIMA, the new anime series is set to premiere in Fall 2024 according to this latest and first teaser trailer.

One of the key differences between Dragon Ball DAIMA anime and the leaked Magic details seems to be exactly who is turned into a child via a wish with the Dragon Balls. Whereas the Magic leaks claimed that just Goku and Shin would be turned into children, it seems that the entire mainline cast of the series has suffered the same fate.

While information on the series is somewhat minimal at this time, Dragon Ball DAIMA seems to be a new canonical mainline anime set around the same time as when Super takes place. Fans also get a look at the apparent upcoming antagonists for the anime, who’ve seemingly been watching the Z Fighters and all their past struggles this entire time.

The Dragon Ball DAIMA teaser trailer first starts with a brief overview of the history of the series, stretching from its debut as a manga in 1984 and beyond. Scenes from the non-canonical GT are even included here, which is certainly an intriguing choice. In any case, this continues until the year 2023 appears on the screen, with nothing playing behind it.

The year then changes to 2024 as the teaser trailer truly begins. Fans are taken to a demonic-looking castle, where two unknown apparent antagonists are standing within. They are surrounded by events from the history of the series, which seem to only cover the events of the Z anime.

After some brief seemingly unimportant shots, Shenron is seen appearing and asking someone for their wish. This is followed by a scene that sees both Goku and Vegeta turned into children, a plight that is revealed to have affected Bulma, Chi Chi, and essentially everyone else in the main cast. 

The group is seen heading to the lookout and other various locations in the series, before once again showing the demonic castle and antagonists within.The trailer ends with a beam struggle between Goku and Vegeta as adults, before showing a young Goku preparing to fight someone and revealing the series logo. 

Given the Fall 2024 release window, the series’ premiere will most likely coincide with the 40th anniversary of the original series, set to take place in November 2024. However, this is wholly speculative, with no further information on the series beyond what’s described above.

Lost Media: Gibby, Lost iCarly Spinoff Pilot Full Episode Is Now On YouTube

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Gibby gets a gig at a recreational center where he winds up as a mentor to four offbeat middle-school students.

iCarly Revival Cancelled After 3 Seasons On Paramount+

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"iCarly will not be returning for a fourth season on Paramount+," a spokesperson for the streamer told sources in a statement. "The series had a great three-season run and delivered on what fans really wanted to see with Carly and Freddie finally getting together. We want to thank the entire cast, the writers, directors and producers along with the whole crew for their dedication, creativity, and talent."

The first iteration of iCarly aired on Nickelodeon from 2007-2012 and starred Miranda Cosgrove as an early internet influencer whose titular web show becomes very popular. Jennette McCurdy played her best friend Sam, and Nathan Kress played her friend/love interest Freddie, while Jerry Trainer portrayed Carly's older brother Spencer.

Miranda Cosgrove on 'iCarly.' | CREDIT: LISA ROSE/PARAMOUNT+

All of those principals (except for McCurdy, whose recent memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died explains her retirement from acting) returned for the Paramount+ reboot in 2021, which further explored the romance between Carly and Freddie.

Kress mourned the cancellation on Twitter, writing that the crew "had a lot of story left to tell." He said, "Maybe somehow, someday, we'll find out how to story ends."

"The best people I've ever worked with in the business," Laci Mosley, who joined the reboot cast as Carly's roommate Harper, wrote on Twitter. "Thank you for tuning in to the reboot. Everyone put their deeply kind talented souls into this."

 

Development Alert: Crunchyroll To Get A Dedicated TV Channel In North America With Global Plans On The Cards, Could MultiChoice Or StarTimes Perhaps Get It?

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Since 2006, Crunchyroll has been known as the leading destination for anime fans featuring shows such as My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Attack On Titan and One Piece. Since it's inception in 2006, it garnered 120 million subscribers globally with 1% of the population under a paywall.

For a decade, the Sony based brand was available only as a streaming service with a freemium tier available to low income households with select shows licenced to broadcasters in Africa such as Toonami and SABC 2.

Through the greenhouse website, it was revealed that the company is looking for a director/manager in charge of managing the upcoming linear service to the current Crunchyroll streaming service alongside the programming and operations for the brands.

For now, the channel will rollout in North America (likely Latin America) and through a statement it was also mentioned that the Crunchyroll Channel will rollout "in key markets around the world" so we assume they'll be targeting regions which already bundle the streaming service.

South Africa is the most notable within the African region to bundle Crunchyroll alongside various other streaming services such as The Walt Disney Company's Disney+, BBC and ITV Studios' BritBox and Vuclip's VIU. As other territories have yet to see these in their markets.

With a majority of gaming and anime fans residing within South Africa and selected African territories, there's no doubt that Crunchyroll Channel would be a resounding success but questions amounts to whether or if StarTimes and/or MultiChoice will look into adding the channel.

Crunchyroll catering for the same audience as Adult Swim and not Cartoon Network isn't regarded as a kids channel so if anything these channel will likely set alongside brands like Universal, M-Net and BBC Brit on DStv or FilmBox Africa, FilmBox Action and St Zone on StarSat.