Little Bird to Distribute Horrid Henry Series

OXFORD, February 20: Novel
Entertainment has inked a deal for Little Bird Rights to distribute the Horrid
Henry animated television series
around the world, excluding the U.K.

The series is the first
third-party production that Little Bird will distribute.

Ahead of the deal, the
series has already sold to a number of international broadcasters including
Disney Channel in France, ZDF in Germany, RTE in Ireland, RUV in Iceland, SVT
in Sweden, NRK in Norway and YLE in Finland. Deals are currently being
negotiated for South Africa, Turkey and Portugal.

The 52×11-minute series
was commissioned by CITV in the U.K., and is produced by Lucinda Whiteley and
Mike Watts at Novel Entertainment. The 2-D animated series features Horrid
Henry, a headstrong boy constantly raging against the tyranny of adults, his
irritating brother Peter Perfect and infuriating girls like Moody Margaret. Horrid
Henry is based on the books
written by Francesca Simon, illustrated by Tony Ross and published by Orion
Children's Books. The book series has sold nearly 11 million copies in the U.K.
alone, and is available in 27 countries and 22 languages.

Copyright Promotions serves as Novel’s merchandise licensing partner on
the series, and a master toy license in the U.K. has been granted to
Re:creation.

“Horrid Henry is a huge priority for us and we are thrilled to
be working with Little Bird to extend the reach of the show worldwide,” said
Mike Watts, the managing director of Novel Entertainment.

Judith Howton, the head of
sales at Little Bird, added, “Our distribution partnership with Novel
Entertainment is a major development for Little Bird Rights. Until now we have
concentrated exclusively on distributing Little Bird’s own output. We’re
excited to become part of Horrid Henry’s great success and further adventures.”

—By Ned Berke