Kids round-up: Disney Junior couples up for more ‘Chuggington’; CITV acquires ‘Mighty Mike’; CMC reveals new dates

Chuggington

Disney Junior couples up to Chuggington

Disney Junior has signed on for the sixth season of kids train series Chuggington and will air it in 2020 to coincide with the brand’s 10th anniversary.

The new agreement extends a 10-year relationship between the children’s brand and Disney Junior, which debuted the CGI series about three young trainee trains in January 2010.

Herschend Entertainment Studios (HES) acquired Chuggington a year ago from Ludorum and has refreshed the brand, with the latest 52 x 10 sixth season offered to buyers alongside a hybrid live-action and animation short format made up of 26 x 1.5 minute episodes.

Michael G. Stern (Doc McStuffins) serves as co-executive producer and head writer, while Julie Phillips, VP of development and production at HES, is executive producer.

Earlier this year, HES appointed former Genius Brands exec Natalie Setton to oversee its commercial and distribution activities as it prepared to re-launch Chuggington.

CITV welcomes Mighty Mike

Mighty Mike

CITV in the UK has struck a deal with kids’ entertainment specialist CAKE for slapstick comedy Mighty Mike.

The 78 x 7 minute dialogue-free chase cartoon features a refined pug with sophisticated tastes who longs for a quiet life but is instead forced to defend his house from a bunch of furry intruders.

The show, which will start airing on CITV from 6 January, has already been acquired by Cartoon Network for its Boomerang brand, as well as Universal Kids in the US, CBC and Family Channel in Canada and France Télévisions.

Super RTL Germany, YLE Finland, VRT Belgium, KRO-NCRV Holland and ABC Australia= are almong other buyers, while Tencent will launch the series in 2020 in China.

Mighty Mike is aimed at 6-10 year olds and was produced by France’s TeamTO and Canada’s Digital Dimension. CAKE handles international distribution excluding France, Germany and China. Surge Licensing are handling licensing in the US and Canada.

Kids conference CMC confirms new dates

The UK’s Children’s Media Conference (CMC) is changing its dates for 2020.

The event, which takes place in the UK city of Sheffield, will now run from Tuesday 7 to Thursday 9 July with the theme ‘Right Here Right Now’. Sessions and panels will tackle the issues facing the children’s media industry and the fight to attract young audiences.

The event will continue to start with its annual market day, the CMC International Exchange, on Tuesday 7 July with the conference then also set to feature keynote speakers and sessions exploring new players, funding models and the volatile digital landscape for kids.

Greg Childs, editorial director at CMC, said: “Our theme this year was very much inspired by the challenges set by our young Changemakers last July. They demanded action from us on climate change, diversity in the industry, enabling the voices of young people and understanding the changing ways in which they’re accessing their media choices.

“The theme reflects the rapid change in the kids’ content business landscape. New sources of funding, industry consolidation, public service and commercial pressure, new platforms targeting young consumers, new regulatory issues and continuing audience fragmentation – they are all contributing to uncertainty.”

Israel’s Noga among first deals for Little Tiaras

Little Tiaras

Israeli firm Noga has acquired exclusive free-to-air rights for the first two seasons of Russian 3D animated series Little Tiaras, along with TVP ABC in Poland and All Media for Kanals 2 in Latvia.

The show, produced for CTC Media and sold by APC Kids, is aimed at girls aged 4-7 and follows the collaboration between CTC and APC Kids on global hit series Kid-e-cats. Noga will air the show on its kids network, The Children Channel.

APC holds global rights outside of Russia, CIS and mainland China to the show, which is produced by Melnitsa Animation Studio and owned by CTC Media and CTB Film Company.

The first season of 26 episodes premiered in Russia in 2018 with the second currently on air. APC brought on board UK story editors David Moore (Paddington) and Emma Hogan (Ollie) to work on the new episodes.