In a banner buy, Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America has acquired the upcoming ‘Totally Spies’ Season 8 and renewed ‘Topo Gigio’ for Discovery Kids
Rolling off its eyecatching portfolio of premium, high-end kids titles, Banijay Kids & Family has clinched a raft of package deals in Latin America, announced strategically in the run-up to this year’s Annecy MIFA market.
In a banner deal, Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America has acquired teen girl undercover agent series “Totally Spies!” Season 8 and Italian 2D adventure comedy “Topo Gigio.”
V-me Media, the family-targeting U.S. Spanish-language network has closed a broad gamut of shows for Vme Kids: preschool eco adventure “MiniHeroes of the Forest,” musical shorts series “Sweet Tweets,” pre-school comedy “Mumfie,” interstellar game comedy “The Game Catchers” Season 1, and “Stan & Gran,” a nature-packed mystery series for 4-7s.
Canal Once, a Mexican public broadcaster, has clinched a medley of shows for kids channel Once Niñas y Niños: fantasy series “Chimera Keepers”; scientific experiment adventure “Hey You! What If…?”; teen trainee vet reality show “Junior Vets”; global hit “Moominvalley” Seasons 3-4; sci-fi teen series “Silverpoint” Seasons 1-2; and “Street Football” Season 4, which takes the tween players to a street football World Cup.
In further deals, Hispanic Information Telecommunications Network (HITN) has secured what Banijay Kids & Family describes as a broad content package for its U.S Latino and Latin-American preschool platform Edye. Titles include “MiniHeroes of the Forest,” “Sweet Tweets,” CBeebies pre-school daily adventure tales “Tee and Mo,” and “The Game Catchers” Season 1.
More on ‘Totally Spies,’ ‘MiniHeroes of the Forest,’ ‘The Game Catchers’
Though ranging widely and Canal Once’s deal taking in more catalog fare, three titles seem particularly significant. “Totally Spies” Season 8, marks the second installment of the series after a Season 7 reboot of the original series, a global hit running for six seasons from 2001 through 2012. Season 7 was a huge hit in France, bowing to a 37% share in the 4-14 demographic. Season 8 is produced by Zodiak Kids & Family France in collaboration with French kids TV network Gulli and Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA.
Produced by Movimenti Production and MoBo, Italian-French woodland-set 3D comedy adventure series “MiniHeroes of the Forest” has four young animal friends acquiring mini super powers. Animation design has a combo used in much BK&F animation: Pop out colors for characters, natural tones for for richly worked backgrounds. “MiniHeroes of the Forest” reached No. 1 among kids 4-5 and No. 2 among kids 6-7 on Rai Yoyo (Italy). It featured in the top 15 preschool programs for France 5 and Okoo (France).
Acquired for distribution by Banijay Kids & Family in 2023, “The Game Catchers” Season 1 sees little children traveling the universe discovering and collecting new playground games.
Banijay Kids & Family’s new Latin America sales announcements come as animation remains a key factor of audience retention, the second most important after comedy (27.0% vs 25.4%) on Netflix and biggest (20.5%) on Max, according to PlumResearch.
Aiding sales, Banijay of course owns big brands in kids entertainment, led by “Totally Spies!” and “Mr Bean: The Animated Series.” Many of its shows play off revered IPs. “Topo Gigio” is inspired by a character which was a star on Italian pubcaster RAI from the late 1950s.
Banijay Kids & Family is also flexing its expertise in building brand beyond linear environments. Titles, once established as brands may grow to what PlumResearch calls “neo-evergreens” – “One Piece” in anime, “Peppa Pig” in animation – which help drive much of the longtail viewership of global streaming services, that accounts for 90% of their viewership, PlumResearch estimates.
“These latest deals underscore the continued demand for Banijay Kids & Family’s premium catalogue, alongside our commitment to our long-term partners across Latin America,” said Cécile Cau, SVP sales, co-productions and acquisitions, Banijay Kids & Family.
She added: “By collaborating closely with commercial and public service clients in the region, we’re able to deliver a rich content mix of entertainment and edutainment that meets audience needs, reinforcing our position as a go-to supplier of kids and family programming.”
Led by Benoît Di Sabatino, Banijay Kids & Family is part of media and entertainment powerhouse Banijay Entertainment.
