PGS to Unveil Le Petit Prince

PARIS/CANNES: MIP Junior will feature the premiere screening of Le Petit Prince, a new show from Method Animation that has already been sold into several territories by PGS Entertainment. Philippe Soutter, the company’s managing director and co-founder, tells TV Kids about his plans for expansion, including taking on some preschool and live-action properties.

Soutter formed PGS two years ago with his brother, Guillaume, following a stint at Cyber Group Studios. Since its inception, the company has been positioned as a pure-play distributor, focused entirely on helping independent producers in the kids’ and family sectors get their shows out to the worldwide market. “We aim to be the best sales platform for independents to have their shows successfully exploited worldwide. Our first step has been to select premium shows with a library of more than 500 half hours to date. We are now expanding through regional offices like our recent co-venture PGS Ypsilon Latin America, which will represent our catalogue and additional [titles] in the Latin American markets."
 
One of the first production outfits to turn to PGS was Method Animation. Over the past two years, that partnership has been a fruitful one. At MIP Junior, buyers will get to see the first episode of Le Petit Prince, based on the famous children’s book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which PGS is distributing internationally outside Asia. “We worked with Method hand in hand,” Soutter says. “We worked together on building the international financing of this show, which [cost] more than 18 million euros, bringing on more than 20 channels before the animation started.” The show is a collaboration of Method Animation, the Saint Exupéryd’Agay estate, France Télévisions, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, La Fabrique d’Images, DQ Entertainment, WDR, Rai Fiction and TSR. Other partners on board include RTBF, VRT, TV5MONDE, MTV3 Finland, ABC Australia and RTV Slovenia.
 
Working with producers on pre-production financing is just one part of PGS’s business model—the company also takes on fully-financed projects, such as Samka’s I.N.K. “It’s all about what makes sense for the producer and for us,” Soutter says. However, “we do not get involved if a show doesn’t have a local broadcaster. We focus on brands—like Iron Man, Le Petit Prince, Charlie Chaplin, Marsupilami—or shows that have at least two or three major international broadcasters attached to the pre-financing which typically helps on the international appeal during the writing phase. With the market being more and more saturated to survive you need to be extremely picky.”
 
Looking ahead, Soutter is keen to remain firmly focused on the kids’ and family content business, and he is eyeing opportunities to expand the catalogue, notably into preschool and live action—although he confesses that hits in the genre are hard to find. As Soutter looks at the company’s positioning, he says, “We are very proud that 80 percent of the shows we have in the catalogue are going into second seasons. For a young company like us, we believe it to be a strong signal to the market."