9 Story Media


US publisher Scholastic to buy 9 Story Media for $186m

US-based publisher Scholastic is buying Canada’s 9 Story Media Group for C$250m ($186m). The children’s publishing firm behind Clifford The Big Red Dog has signed a definitive agreement to take full control of 9 Story subject to customary closing adjustments, buying 100% of the economic interest and a minority of voting rights. Scholastic said the […]

YouTube Red orders batch of new originals

Subscription video service YouTube Red has ordered a live action kids series featuring YouTube star Colin Furze, a pair of scripted series and a competition format. Production on 9 Story Media Group-produced Furze World Wonders has begun ahead of an autumn launch on the online subscription service. YouTube Red has also ordered a Dwayne Johnson […]

9 Story swoops on tots trio

Canada’s 9 Story Distribution International has acquired a trio of children’s TV properties. The shows, Mixer Films’ Vivi, The Mother Company’s Ruby’s Studio and Télé-Québec short-form series My Friend Bubbles, will make their international debuts at MIPTV in Cannes. Vivi comes from Oscar-winning director Alê Abreu, who mixes multi-media animation featuring use of crayons, coloured […]

Done deals in the week Trump won

Its been a seismic week for global politics with the election of Donald Trump as president-elect in the US, and a sad one for music fans everywhere with the death of Leonard Cohen. There’s been nothing quite as earth-shattering in the TV world, but there has been plenty of business between international companies (which are looking […]

Deal Monitor: week starting Nov 23

A round-up of all the key deals in international television this week (beginning November 23, 2015; most recent from top). New Zealand’s Pukeko Pictures and China’s Guangdong Huawen Century Animation Company are to coproduce Kiddets, a sister series to The WotWots Europe-based NRK, SVT, YLE and VRT have prebought Irish live-action/animation hybrid Little Roy from JAM Media […]

State of the industry: Canadian kids TV

Digital disruption and an end to regulatory protection has some in the Canadian kids business worried, but while content providers have one less broadcaster to pitch following the sell-off of Astral Media’s assets, they are optimistic that the same new platforms threatening traditional TV will provide them with greater global reach. Mark Dillon reports. The […]