Nickelodeon Secures Rights to New Action-Adventure Series

MALIBU: The worldwide broadcast rights to Monsuno, an animated boys’ action-adventure series co-produced by JAKKS Pacific and Dentsu Entertainment USA with FremantleMedia Enterprises, have been picked up by Nickelodeon to premiere in spring 2012 on Nicktoons.

The 52×30-minute series, which targets boys 6 to 11, will be launched on Nickelodeon-owned channels in the U.S., Latin America, the U.K., key European and Eastern European territories, Australia and New Zealand, India, Southeast Asia, Russia and Africa.

Monsuno is co-produced by Pacific Animation Partners, a joint venture between JAKKS Pacific and Dentsu Entertainment USA with FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) and The Topps Company. FME will be responsible for the exclusive worldwide distribution of the series’ TV programming except for Asia, and will act as the master licensing agent for the brand outside of Asia.

Monsuno will be supported by the JAKKS Pacific toy line, featuring action figures, play sets, electronics and more, which is expected to hit U.S. retail shelves to coincide with the TV series premiere.

“The Monsuno broadcast deal with Nickelodeon represents a critical milestone in our strategic plan to bring the Monsuno entertainment property to a global audience,” said Stephen Berman, the president and CEO of JAKKS Pacific. “We greatly look forward to working with Nickelodeon and all of our partners to bring Monsuno to life and spark the vivid imaginations of boys around the world.”

“Monsuno is poised to be the next phenomenon for boys,” added Jeremy Padawer, the executive VP of marketing at JAKKS Pacific.

Sander Schwartz, the head of Children’s & Family Entertainment at FME, commented, “Monsuno is a truly epic entertainment project. With Nickelodeon on board as the international broadcaster, this will complete an already stellar lineup of partners. We believe that Monsuno has all of the ingredients to become a hugely successful multiplatform boys’ action-adventure property.”