Ahead of MIPCOM next week, Spanish production and distribution company Imira Entertainment has sealed a pair of distribution deals with Scholastic and Fox International Channels’ Baby TV.
Imira will now handle distribution for Scholastic titles such as Animorphs, Goosebumps, Horrible Histories, I Spy, Maya & Miguel, The Magic School Bus, Sammy’s Story Shop and two versions of Stellaluna across Latin America. The deal extends the existing relationship between Scholastic and Imira, who already represent Clifford The Big Red Dog, Clifford’s Puppy Days and Wordgirl in Iberia and Latin America.
“We are pleased to entrust Imira Entertainment with our key properties as we extend our relationship with them into Latin America”, said Leslye Schaefer, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Consumer Products for Scholastic Media.
Meanwhile, Imira’s deal with Fox International Channels’ BabyTV will also see the company represent the channels brands for licensing, merchandising, publishing rights. They have also taken distribution right to select properties from BabyTV’s extensive content library in Spain and Portugal. “BabyTV is a 360 degree brand and it is important to bundle merchandising and certain TV rights under one roof”, said Ralf Kies, BabyTV’s SVP of Licensing & Content Sales.
In addition to the distribution deals, Imira Entertainment has sold 39 episode pre-school series Cleo to Spanish broadcaster TVE, and the second season of Aurora’s animated series Yoohoo & Friends to Cartoon Network Latin America for its Caribbean and Latin American channels.
“Imira Entertainment has a wealth of expertise in global distribution, and we look forward to taking the outstanding programming from both BabyTV and Scholastic – bringing their properties to even more families”, said Sergi Reitg, CEO of Imira Entertainment. “Our commitment to our third party distribution business further underscored by the sales for two of our other recently acquired properties – Cleo and Yoohoo & Friends.”
