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A new UK distribution outfit fronted by former LazyTown Entertainment exec Adam Selly has taken worldwide rights to a Komixx Entertainment preschool toon.
Toby's Travelling Circus
London-based Union Media will handle sales of Toby’s Travelling Circus (52x10′) and will launch it at MipJunior and Mipcom in Cannes this October.
The stop-frame series, coproduced with Manchester puppet shop MacKinnon & Saunders, follows the world’s youngest ringmaster and his group of friends.
The show is notable for the faith placed in it by UK terrestrial Channel 5 when it commissioned a second season before the first had aired, as C21 reported.
“Throughout the creation of Toby’s Travelling Circus it has been important to us to support the UK’s animation and children’s TV industry, and in doing so we have worked with some of the best talent the country has to offer,” said Komixx’s CEO and head of film and TV Andrew Cole-Bulgin.
Union, meanwhile, was launched quietly this year by Selly, the sales executive who was most recently senior director of non-linear preschool distribution at Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) EMEA.
This came after TBS paid between £15m (US$23.5m) and £20m for Iceland-based Latibær (aka LazyTown Entertainment), where Selly was head of global television.
Union claims its business model is “unique” because producers pay only a share of the costs, which are divided in proportion to the revenue the prodco earns. Furthermore, the rights are not locked with Union and can be recalled at any time, provided three months’ notice is given.
Selly, who has also held senior sales roles at Hit Entertainment, Atomic Entertainment and Entertainment Rights, is working alongside former Liberation Entertainment and Portman Film & Television international sales chief James Belsham, according to the firm’s website.
On today’s deal, Selly said: “With 20 years’ experience in distribution and having brought a number of globally successful children’s shows to the international market, I believe Toby’s Travelling Circus has very strong potential to be highly appealing to broadcasters around the world, as well as the audiences of children that they serve.”
