Sky Kids picks up Aussie puppet series Beep & Mort from ABC Commercial

Beep & Mort evolved from an Australian theatre show

European pay TV broadcaster Sky has acquired Australian children’s TV series Beep & Mort from ABC Commercial for its new linear channel Sky Kids in the UK.

Launched at Mipcom in October, the puppet-based original series is produced by Australia’s Windmill Pictures, directed by Rosemary Myers and has production design by Jonathon Oxlade (Bluey’s Big Play). Global distribution is handled by ABC Commercial.

Beep & Mort evolved from an Australian theatre show called Beep, created by The Windmill Theatre Company.

The show’s sale is part of an ongoing relationship between Sky and ABC Commercial and follows Sky Arts’ recent acquisition of The Australian Ballet’s The Merry Widow and The Art of Australia from the ABC.

Beep & Mort will be one of the first programmes to air on recently launched preschool channel Sky Kids and will also be available on-demand.

The toon originally aired down under on public broadcaster ABC TV in October 2022.

ABC Commercial has enjoyed a brisk run of international sales over the past six months, including kids’ format Born to Spy to HBO Asia, following its sale to the BBC for CBBC, TVNZ in New Zealand, SVT in Sweden and WildBrain TV in Canada.

The 10×30’ series was created by Justine Flynn and produced Aquarius Films and launched on BBC iPlayer in June 2022.