BET in Partnership with Film Roman

LOS ANGELES, August 15: BET's newly established animation
division has announced two new deals, including a tie up with Film Roman for a
slate of animated films and multiplatform series.

Through its pact with Film
Roman, the award-winning animation studio behind The Simpsons and King of the Hill, BET plans animated films, series and content for
the Internet, broadband and mobile applications. In addition, the companies
plan to jointly develop and produce direct-to-DVD and theatrical releases. The
terms of the three-year, non-exclusive deal also include international
distribution outside of the BET Network.

In addition, the Viacom-owned network is developing a new
action-adventure animated series. The show will reunite Denys Cowan, BET’s SVP
of animation, with his former creative partner, Dwayne McDuffie, the co-founder
of Milestone Media. The pair created Static Shock, a Saturday morning cartoon on The WB and a top-selling comic series.

The deals come on the heels of
BET’s agreement with Vin Diesel and One Race Productions for the Hannibal
the Conqueror animated series.

"If Black America is a
cultural superpower, then there's no better medium to express the full range of
our collective imagination than animation," said Reginald Hudlin, the
president of entertainment at BET. "There will be shorts that will air
throughout our programming schedule as well as online content. Hopefully, by
fall of next year, we'll begin to launch our animated series."