Italian net pounces on Peanuts

MIPJUNIOR: An Italian broadcaster has picked up rights to the forthcoming children’s show featuring iconic US cartoon characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

Peanuts will premiere on France 3 at the end of October and will also now be aired by Rai in Italy after the pubcaster pre-bought the show ahead of its worldwide debut.

France 3 parent France Télévisions partnered with Peanuts Worldwide last year to develop the latest series featuring the characters, which is available as 104 shows of seven minutes or 500 episodes of 90 seconds.

Julien Borde, exec director at France Télévisions’ programme and digital department, said the show would premiere on the French network in a Sunday morning slot. It is being sold internationally by France TV Distribution.

The French public broadcaster is working with local prodco Normaal Animation on the project, which comes ahead of the release of the Peanuts animated feature film in 2015.

The new collection marks the first animated interpretations of the Peanuts comic strips in shortform and is being sold here at in Cannes. A dedicated YouTube channel is also being prepared for the show, which is based on the Peanuts comic strip, first drawn by Charles M Schulz in 1948.

Since 2001, ABC has been the US home of the classic Peanuts cartoon holiday specials, where they will continue to air until at least 2015.

Buyers in Japan, China, Brazil and Germany are also being lined up for the new show, while deals in Latin America are also nearing completion.