Imira Entertainment’s Sergi Reitg

It has been about a year since Toonz Entertainment acquired the Spanish production and distribution outfit Imira Entertainment. With the transaction, Imira gained the TV and licensing rights for Toonz Animation-produced content in regions where it has an established foothold, including Europe, the U.S., Latin America and Africa. Imira also benefits from the investment and production partnership potential of its parent company. Sergi Reitg, the CEO of Imira Entertainment, talks to TV Kids about the latest developments at the company and what’s ahead.

TV KIDS: 2015 was a very busy year for Imira Entertainment.
REITG: Indeed, this last year has been a very good year for Imira. We relaunched the company after completing our deal with Toonz Media Group, to which we now belong. After all the regular proceedings this type of integration entails, we’ve relaunched the business, expanding the catalogue in a very important way, closing pretty significant deals in different parts of the world and also expanding the company’s sales team to meet this new role we have within the group, which is to handle the group’s global distribution.

TV KIDS: How is Imira positioned to meet the demands of the evolving marketplace?
REITG: The market is really changing. Right now, I think it’s important to work on two fronts: [to have] products of the highest quality to meet the needs of broadcasters, while also having a very wide catalogue to cater to other customers such as VOD platforms needing a greater amount of content. [To that end], late last year we incorporated the catalogue of Xilam, the prestigious French producer we represent in Iberia, Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market. We also recently closed a very important agreement for the company, taking on Zodiak Kids’ catalogue. We will manage those sales in Latin America for free-TV channels.

TV KIDS: What are some of the current catalogue highlights?
REITG: Cleo launched in Spain in January of this year. It is a preschool series of 39 episodes, each seven-minutes long, which are seeing extraordinary results. In fact, for the last six months it’s remained between the first and third positions on Clan TV, which is the main animation channel in Spain, beating very important properties such as Peppa Pig and others. Actually, the results have been so good that we are launching a collection of toys this year in Spain through El Corte Inglés, and hopefully in other countries next year, plus some new toys that will launch next year based on Cleo. We also have plans to develop a second season with series producer La Casa Animada, and we expect Televisión Española will collaborate.

Alisa is a 3D animated series. It’s a comedy/adventure series produced by the Russian producer Bazelevs. It’s a high-quality [title] that we have launched with great success. We are closing the first sales [on it] and the market response is very good. It adds something we’ve needed in our portfolio’s target, [which is that] we needed more powerful content in our catalogue for the 8-to-12 age range.

And finally, there’s Jamillah & Aladdin, without a doubt a flagship product co-produced by [Toonz Entertainment with] CBeebies [and CBBC], Kindle and Mediabiz, with Imira as worldwide distributor, except for the U.K., Ireland and Australia. The first 26 chapters have been completed.

TV KIDS: How has Spain’s animation industry withstood the country’s tough financial times?
REITG: The truth is that Spain has effectively been suffering a very serious economic crisis for several years and is recovering more slowly than what we’d all want, but it’s at least recovering. This has clearly affected the animation industry. Unfortunately, it has made some companies disappear, but it has also allowed more efficient and powerful companies to position themselves in this new stage, which I think will be very good. New channels are also starting to appear in Spain—the Spanish government recently presented new TV licenses and we hope that the groups that have received these new licenses dedicate [space and investments] to kids’ content.

Also, SVOD operators such as Netflix, which is now in Spain, and other incoming platforms have boosted the market in terms of consumption. It’s true that Spain has a great and long history in regard to the creativity of productions, and this persists. Therefore, with a better scenario in terms of increased demand and a better scenario in terms of funding—along with bigger, healthier and stronger companies—I think we’re at a good place regarding Spanish animated productions.

TV KIDS: How important are multiplatform extensions for Imira’s brands?
REITG: This has to be already within the DNA of any new production, and that requires other types of formats—perhaps shorter, quicker content—along with the traditional long-form content broadcast on linear TV or SVOD platforms. Undoubtedly, I don’t consider YouTube as an enemy to beat, but rather an ally with which we must collaborate. In this sense, it is very important for all our productions to have a 360-degree development with linear-TV content adapted for online consumption, content for app games or online games. This is definitely ‘a must’ because children are consuming more content than ever. They just do it in another way and on other platforms.