German pick-ups for Nelvana's Beyblade

MIP NEWS – After years of trying to break into the German television market with Beyblade, Nelvana has finally achieved success, having sold the kids' action animé series to two major commercial networks.

Beyblade is already a ratings winner in 11 territories worldwide, including the US, Canada, UK and France. However sealing a German deal has been a major goal for some time, said a Nelvana spokeswoman.

Germany’s RTL2 acquired Beyblade episodes 1 to 51 and premiered the series last week. Fox Kids Germany has also signed on to the property and plans to launch the first of their 26 episodes in June 2003.

Acquired by Nelvana from Japan’s d-rights, Beyblade tells the story of a boy who learns to harness the power of his ancestors to perfect his technique in the sport of Beyblade.

Cartoon Network UK has taken 51 further episodes of Beyblade, adding to the first 52 episodes picked up last year. The show has become the #1 show on the network in January and February 2003 with kids 4-15, 4-9 and 10-15 (BARB, February 2003).

Beyblade has also hit in North America. It garners upwards of 500k viewers age 2+ each week in Canada on YTV, and is also performing well stripped five days a week on ABC Family in the US.

Other recent sales wrapped for Beyblade include 51 episode deals with Polsat in Poland, TV2 in Hungary, Viasat (TV3 Estonia, TV3 Lithuania, TV3 Latvia), and TVI Televisio of Portugal, as well as a 52 episode sale to Caracol TV in Columbia.

International promotion deals have also been lined up for Beyblade with Frito-Lay International and Kellogg's Europe, as well as with the Burger King Corporation for an extensive QSR promotion in Canada, the US., Europe and Latin America.