Baby Cow, Roughcut move into kids TV with Disney deals

British comedy producers Baby Cow Productions and Ash Atalla’s Roughcut Television are moving into kids TV for the first time and have inked development deals with Disney, TBIvision understands.

Baby Cow Productions, which was set up Steve Coogan and Henry Normal, and Roughcut, which was started by The Office producer Atalla, are both working on live action series for Disney’s boy skewing action channel Disney XD.

This comes as the channel announced the commission of new original animated series Randy Cunningham: Ninth Grade Ninja, a 52x11mins series produced by Irish indie Boulder Media and LA-based Titmouse Inc.

Marc Buhaj, senior VP, original programming, Disney Channels, EMEA, said it was keen to work with production companies that hadn’t made kids series before. “We don’t necessarily want to go back to the same folk that have always made [kids series] for years,” he said.

Disney is also in development with two preschool series with Aardman.

These deals mark the successful roll out of Disney’s European production hub, which it set up in 2007 and has produced series including Jungle Junction, which has been aired in 130 territories.