Jetpack Distribution
Dominic Gardiner, CEO of UK-based Jetpack Distribution, explores the breadth and variety of the company’s catalogue and showcases his MipJunior highlights via C21’s Digital Screenings this week.
Kids and family distributor Jetpack Distribution is showcasing 10 series via C21’s Digital Screenings this week, all of which will be heading to MipJunior next month.
The 10 series cover a wide range of genres, age groups and styles, as the company strives to offer a catalogue that “has something for everyone,” according to Dominic Gardiner, CEO of the UK-based company.
“We work with 47 producers across the world, picking up shows from action-adventure series to comedies, for children of all ages,” he adds. “We think we’ve got everything covered and that’s been our watchword really, to make sure we’ve got a lot of variety to our content.
“The size of the catalogue is also really important for us, so we not only have a variety, but the volume too. We’ve now grown to 2,600 half-hours of quality content. Last year, we sold into 150 territories, and we have a really eclectic set of shows we’re very excited about bringing to market.”
One of the newest additions to Jetpack’s slate, and which features in its Digital Screenings playlist, is Kung Fu Pork Choppers (104×11’), a CGI comedy and action show for four- to eight-year-olds. The series centres on a team of five intergalactic out-of-this-world pigs in space and comes from licensing company Centa IP.
Kung Fu Pork Choppers follows on from original series GG Bond (meaning ‘pig hero’ in Chinese), which is produced by Winsing Animation Group in China, where it premiered in 2005 and currently airs on more than 100 channels, including CCTV and Kaku.
Racking up 700 million views across all online platforms, the series has been consistently in the top-five-rated shows every year since its launch, on average holding five of the top 10 kids’ slots each week.
Winsing Animation Group has committed to at least 300 episodes of Kung Fu Pork Choppers, which will see multiple seasons being produced.
Another new addition to Jetpack’s slate is Viking Skool (27×22’), a 2D animated action-adventure and comedy series co-produced by French prodco Samka and Cartoon Saloon in Ireland.
Aimed at six- to 10-year-olds, the series is set in a school for Vikings and is due to premiere on Disney Channel and Disney+ across EMEA and on France Televisions. At MipJunior, Jetpack will be hoping to sell Viking Skool to buyers in Asia, North America and Latin America, while looking for second windows in Europe.
Also headlining Jetpack’s playlist is Mimi’s World (40×11’), a blended live-action/animation edutainment preschool series produced by UK-based Adastra Development. The show centres on Mimi, who takes care of a group of diverse kids, helping them deal with their emotions, build confidence, engender wellbeing and nurture friendship, inclusivity and cooperation.
Mimi’s World debuted on Channel 5’s Milkshake! block in May, where it is the top commercial kids’ show in its time slot.
Reimagining the classic Oxford Reading Tree phonics books of the same name is live-action, family-focused comedy drama Biff & Chip (25 x 11’). Produced by BBC Studios Kids & Family Productions, the show is aimed at four- to six-year-olds and their parents or carers and currently airs on UK preschool channel CBeebies.
The Biff & Chip books have been teaching kids in the UK and further afield to read for decades. More than 800 titles have been published in over 130 countries.
Mini Kids (28×16’), meanwhile, is a live-action preschool show commissioned and produced by Norway’s NRK Super. Featuring real-life toddlers, combined with animation and music, the curriculum-based series’ objective is to inspire positive interactions among children and stimulate activity and development.
The first two seasons have aired in the Nordics to critical acclaim, delivering a strong performance, particularly on broadcaster-backed VoD platforms. Jetpack has created an English-language version of the series, which Gardiner says two international broadcasters have already boarded.
With Halloween just around the corner, Jetpack is also showcasing Spookiz (75×2’30”), a 3D animated series produced by Keyring Co in Korea, and a movie (83’) targeting six- to 11-year-olds. The non-verbal slapstick comedy follows humans and monsters who never actually meet. Each night at school, when all the kids are gone, monsters creep out of their hideouts and unexpected events occur.
Spookiz has amassed more than four million subscribers and four billion views on YouTube worldwide. Jetpack previously licensed the series to the BBC, which aired it last Halloween.
Elsewhere on Jetpack’s playlist is Alice’s Diary (52×5’), a 2D animated copro between Portugal-based Sardinha Em Lata, Spain’s Alice AIE and Brazil’s Geppetto Films. The series follows a girl who tries to understand the world through her own art. It targets upper-preschool boys and girls and is currently in production.
Alice’s Diary is set to air on Portuguese pubcaster RTP, Spain’s national broadcaster RTVE and Disney Junior in Latin America.
From Animonsta Studios in Malaysia is 3D animated comedy and action series Mechamato (26×22’). Aimed at kids aged six-plus, the show follows the adventures of a kind and creative young boy who inadvertently becomes the master of MechaBot, a robot with the ability to mechanise everyday objects into high-tech devices.
Mechamato features a diverse cast of characters who use their wits to solve problems and inspire young viewers to be creative and innovative. It is due to air on Cartoon Network in South-East Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea this December and in Japan next March.
Completing Jetpack’s playlist are two spoof animal shows: Silly Animals (20×6’) and Critters TV (26×11’). Silly Animals is a clip show commissioned by Sky Kids in the UK and coproduced by Rebel Television & Media and Silver Star Productions. English comedian Alan Carr narrates the series, which is aimed at five- to 12-year-olds. The producers describe Silly Animals as “You’ve Been Framed meets David Attenborough but presented by a talking dog.”
From Dublin-based Turnip & Duck, Critters TV is a spoof documentary. Made in 2D Flash animation and live-action, it is aimed at four- to eight-year-olds and their families. Like an animal version of Gogglebox, the series features animated animals watching real-life nature documentaries on TV.
Beyond MipJunior and Mipcom this year, Jetpack is investing in its acquisitions department, having expanded the team to help work with the many producers it partners around the world.
“We want to bring on more shows,” Gardiner says. “We can grow the hours in the catalogue but at the same time maintain a very high-quality service for producers and buyers, making sure things are effective and fast.
“We don’t want to be hanging around; we want shows to come in and sell quickly. So we will definitely be investing in that. Further into the future, we’re looking at how we can grow into new areas.”
Jetpack CEO and founder Dominic Gardiner discusses the UK-based distributor’s new shows on C21’s Digital Screenings, its shortform content strategy and his plans to expand into new areas of business.
It is nine years since Dominic Gardiner, former director of acquisitions at Disney, launched boutique kids’ TV distributor Jetpack. In that time, the company has grown rapidly, so that today it represents 56 producers and has a catalogue of 1,800 half-hours. Classic brands in its line-up include Dennis & Gnasher, Chuggington and The Clangers.
With the company coming through the pandemic in good health, CEO Gardiner says: “Part of our strength has been a clear focus. Our business is all about content aimed at 0- to 16-year-olds. Whether we’re working with producers, toy companies or the new wave of digital creators, we’ve ensured that kids’ content remains the heartland of the business.”
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Dominic Gardiner, CEO at UK distributor Jetpack, outlines how he’s reshaping the company to suit the increasingly global market and talks through his slate of titles showcased on C21’s Digital Screenings this week.
UK-based kids’ content distributor Jetpack Distribution is celebrating its eighth birthday this year. Eight years might not seem such a long time, but the company established itself quickly and has evolved through the streaming boom and adapted its strategy as the industry transitions towards the digital world.
CEO Dominic Gardiner singles out one particular trend to have arisen from this. “With all the global platforms now available, we’ve really seen that globalisation of content and global deals are very, very high priority for a lot of those platforms, he says. “In fact, some of them only do global deals. We’ve lost quite a lot of the localisation and specific local strategies; it still exists in national public and free TV, but there is this separate stream of global deals that have changed the way a lot of producers think and the way a lot of distributors have worked.”
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Dominic Gardiner, CEO of Jetpack Distribution, reveals the UK-based kids’ distributor’s new slate of content and discusses the challenges and opportunities of utilising IP to capitalise on engaged audiences.
For Dominic Gardiner, who has 20 years’ industry experience including stints as director of acquisitions at The Walt Disney Company and channel manager of Cartoon Network, established IP in the kids’ TV market has never been more popular.
“Most buyers we talk to, particularly the newer platforms, want successful brands. Publishing is a rich source of content for us,” he says.
Gardiner, now CEO of UK-based Jetpack Distribution, has seen how adapting IP has changed since the emergence of global streaming platforms. “Years ago, I met with a publisher who literally emptied a box of 40 bestselling books on to my desk. I thought, ‘What am I supposed to do with all that?’” he says.
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Jetpack Distribution’s slate reflects industry trends ranging from smart comedy to fresh content mined from publishing brands. Here, the UK-based company’s CEO Dominic Gardiner talks through his C21 Digital Screenings playlist.
In the seven years since it was founded, UK-based Jetpack Distribution has acquired a library of content designed to uplift and inspire kids and their families. The need to raise spirits, according to the boutique distributor’s CEO Dominic Gardiner, has never been more important after the world was upended by the coronavirus pandemic last year.
It’s for this reason that Jetpack’s current slate leans heavily on comedy, although Gardiner says no genre is off limits for the company, with a diverse and broad set of shows that appeal to children and their parents being the main aim of the playlist.
One trend Gardiner has noticed emerging is an appetite for “smart comedy” among children aged over six. “With younger ages, you can get away with the classic pie-in-the-face slapstick comedy. But older children expect intelligent comedy with smart and well-paced dialogue,” he explains.
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Dominic Gardiner, CEO of Jetpack Distribution, is surfing increased demand for animation and talks us through the new properties on the company’s C21 Digital Screenings playlist.
UK-based Jetpack Distribution was launched in 2014 by CEO Dominic Gardiner as a boutique children’s content distributor. With a library of over 1,400 half-hours, the company works with 33 producers to curate a catalogue of high-quality kids’ programmes with international potential.
The majority of Jetpack’s international distribution catalogue comprises animation, because, according to Gardiner, these shows travel really well.
“In terms of global distribution of children’s content, animation is brilliant for crossing borders, whereas live-action is usually distinctly local. We have great quality shows from both genres in our catalogue but it’s fair to say that animation is definitely having a moment right now.”
In light of that, Jetpack’s playlist on C21’s Digital Screenings consists of 10 animated/puppet series and one live-action show.
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