TF1, Marathon Media in New-Media Partnership

PARIS, October 8: TF1 and Marathon Media have inked a deal to co-produce, over a three-year
period, a slate of new-media content—to be used online, on mobile devices
and on VOD services—for three animated series, including the worldwide
hit Totally Spies!

The deal is part of TF1’s
initiatives to ramp up its multimedia offerings for its younger viewers. It
covers Totally Spies!, Monster
Buster Club and a third series
that is currently in development. TF1 has co-produced five seasons of Totally
Spies! (130 episodes) with
Marathon Media. And the 52-episode Monster Buster Club will soon launch on the market-leading French
broadcaster.

With the agreement,
e-TF1—the broadcaster’s Internet and new-media subsidiary—has
acquired the online and mobile rights to the two existing series and, in
partnership with Marathon, will finance the production of content (short
episodes, virtual worlds, etc.) for new-media use. In France, e-TF1 will have
the exclusive rights to this content.

In a joint statement,
David Michel, the general manager of Marathon Media, and David Doro, Marathon’s
director of new media, said: “For the first time in France, the same philosophy
that’s traditionally been applied to television co-productions is being applied
to new media, enabling TF1 and Marathon to finance major multimedia content in
a way that has never been seen before. In the context of this exciting
co-production partnership, over the course of 2008 Marathon will be committing
1.3 million euros (the equivalent of four episodes of an animated series), to
be financed on the international market. We’ll be investing the same budget
over the following two years (2009-2010). With this financing in place,
Internet and mobile-content creation will no longer be seen as light,
promotional online activities, but truly as a major brand extension in its own
right, based on heavy, innovative content, and backed-up by solid financing.”