Int’l networks sail into Driftwood Bay

Broadcasters in Europe, New Zealand and Asia have joined Netflix in North America in acquiring UK indie Sixteen South’s mixed-media preschool toon Lily’s Driftwood Bay.

KiKa in Germany, MTV Oy in Finland, TVNZ in New Zealand and TVB in Hong Kong and Radio Television Brunei have all picked up the 52×7′ series.

This comes after C21 revealed yesterday that distributor Henson Independent Properties (HIP) had sold the show to global streamer Netflix, which will offer the toon to its subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.

Created and director by Belfast-based Sixteen South’s creative director Colin Williams, the series is set on an island that exists in the mind of a little girl who creates stories from different treasures she finds washed up on the beach.

The toon’s striking aesthetic was inspired by items that artist Joanne Carmichael found outside her beach hut on the Scottish island of Arran.

Nick Jr in the UK commissioned a second season of the toon last year, while HIP has previously done deals with broadcasters in territories such as Ireland (RTÉ), Norway (NRK), Sweden (SVT), Australia (ABC) and the US (Sprout).