Studio100 Media Picks Up Balloontoons

MUNICH, January 23: Studio100
Media, the newly formed subsidiary of Belgium’s Studio100, has acquired
extensive rights for the children’s series Balloontoons (Russian title Smeshariki) from German licensor FunGameMedia.

Under the terms of the agreement, Studio100 Media has picked
up all broadcasting rights for the 52×13-minute series, including video on
demand, databank and home-video rights. The deal extends to worldwide
territories excluding the U.K., Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia and Montenegro, among others.

Produced by Studio Petersburg, Balloontoons follows a friendly group of funny round characters
whose world is full of adventure. The series is targeted at children aged 3 to
9, and features a diverse group of characters, which allows children from
around the world to find his or her personal hero among the various
Balloontoons.

Patrick Elmendorff, the general manager of Studio100 Media,
said, “We are delighted to have [added] Balloontoons to our program catalogue. This animation series has
been a huge success in Russia. With 3,000 [airings] on major Russian channels,
over 1,500 licensed products and over two million DVDs and CDs and 600,000
computer games sold, we strongly believe that this highly entertaining and
educational show, with a rich diversity of content, will be just as successful
in other territories.”

—By Kristin Brzoznowski