Sixteen South Rights
Alexandros van Blanken of leading kids producer Sixteen South outlines the company’s international distribution strategy and talks us through the new titles on Sixteen South Rights’ slate for 2023.
Sixteen South Rights, the distribution arm of Belfast-based children’s creator and producer Sixteen South, represents all the studio’s IP that has been created since its launch in 2007.
One of its most recent projects, which headlines Sixteen South Rights’ playlist on C21’s Digital Screenings this week, is upcoming 3D animated physical comedy series Coop Troop (52×11’).
Coproduced by Sixteen South and Mikros Animation, Coop Troop is Sixteen South’s first high-end CGI animation and is also its first series targeting children above preschool age, with a target demographic of five- to nine-year-olds.
The series follows a gang of farm animals and an egg, whose mission is to help any animal with a problem. Likened by Sixteen South Rights general manager Alexandros van Blanken to classic 1980s series The A-Team, the show sees the troop answer calls for help via a big red telephone and go to the rescue in a motorised chicken coop.
Coop Troop, which will debut later this year, was commissioned by France Télévisions and Tencent Video in China and has been pre-sold to Brazil’s Globo. Rights for all other countries are currently available.
Also headlining Sixteen South Rights’ Digital Screenings playlist is 2D animated preschool series Odo (52×7’). Coproduced by Sixteen South and Polish studio Letko, Odo centres on a little owl with big ideas who, at the Forest Camp for Young Birds, positively tackles every challenge, no matter how big.
Odo aims to teach preschoolers to believe in themselves, in order to help combat anxiety and depression. Comedic and warm, the stories deal with themes such as immigration, racism and respect for others, showing kids how to deal with setbacks in a meaningful way while fostering the development of social skills.
Commissioned by Paramount-owned UK terrestrial Channel 5’s preschool block Milkshake! and ARD and ZDF-backed German kids’ channel KiKA, Odo premiered last year and has been sold into more than 150 territories. Buyers so far include HBO Max in Latin America and Canal+ for France and French-speaking countries.
Also on Sixteen South Rights’ Digital Screenings playlist is Lily’s Driftwood Bay (96×7’ and 4×14’), a preschool mixed-media animated show about a five-year-old girl who lives in a beach hut on the shore with her Dad.
Every day, the sea washes up a curious new treasure, which sparks Lily’s imagination about what might be happening across the way on Driftwood Bay. The series’ design features characters, sets and landscapes that have been completely created from things washed up on the beach.
With a voice cast including Stephen Fry and Dolly Parton, Lily’s Driftwood Bay has been sold into more than 120 territories since its launch in 2012 on Paramount’s Nick Jr in the UK. It is produced by Sixteen South.
Claude (50×12’), meanwhile, is an upper-preschool 2D animation produced by Sixteen South for Disney Junior in EMEA and Australia, where it premiered in 2018.
Based on Alex T Smith’s books of the same name, Claude follows a small, helpful dog who, along with his sock best friend, makes it his mission to help his friends in need. The voice cast includes Simon Callow, Shane Richie, Su Pollard and Jane Horrocks.
The final series on Sixteen South Rights’ Digital Screenings playlist is WildWoods (26×11’), a live-action and puppet comedy series for upper preschoolers about a giant sasquatch whose coming of age sees him leave his sheltered indoor urban existence and move into the forest to re-engage with his woodland roots. There he meets Poppy, a pint-sized sugar glider with a big attitude. The odd couple strike up an unlikely friendship and, together, have comedy adventures that see them learn about life a long way from the city.
Produced by Sixteen South, WildWoods premiered on ABC Kids in Australia and has also been picked up by broadcasters and platforms including Disney-owned streamer Hulu in North America, ITVBe in the UK and RTÉJr in Ireland.
Regarding the state of the market right now, Van Blanken notes that live-action children’s content is in high demand among buyers, particularly for older kids above the ages of nine and 10 and for preschoolers. Conversely, animation for young adults is also being requested.
“There is definitely a need for live-action, and the trend I’m hearing across every single broadcaster is that they’re looking for live-action content for the older demo. I think certain broadcasters have given up on animation for that age category,” the exec says.
“What’s really interesting is the way the industry is going back into animation for the young-adult category, which I’m seeing as a trend. We don’t have anything in that space at the moment, but that’s never to say never. It’s something we can look at.
“I’m hearing a lot of live-action requirements across preschool as well, because it has quite a quick turnaround compared to animation.”
While Sixteen South Rights has historically focused solely on in-house content, it now has plans to venture into the third-party space, according to van Blanken.
“We’re looking at how we can grow and how we can do more, and part and parcel of that is taking on third-party distribution. We’re definitely willing to consider that. I think we can find shows that complement what we already have and what we already do, but that sit under the distribution-only model where there’s no creative input on our side whatsoever,” he says.
Sixteen South Rights is also looking at extending into new territories. To help realise this and its third-party content plans, the company intends to expand its team this year.
“We’ve got great relationships with broadcasters and partners across the world, but there’s always room to do more. A longer-term goal would be looking at certain territories we’ve never represented before, where we’ve worked with agents in the past,” van Blanken says.
“Our biggest aspiration this year is to grow the team, maximise our reach and build on the relationships we’ve already got but also establish new ones.
“We will continue to represent our shows and try to get them off the ground as best we can with coproduction models. There is more development coming, and the only way to find the best possible models to get a show made and off the ground is by growing the team. So that’s a key goal for us this year.”
