Turner Orders British Version of Hi-5

April 25, 2008 World Screen

LONDON/SYDNEY, April 25:
Turner Broadcasting has commissioned British outfit Darrall Macqueen to produce
a local version of the Australian kids’ series Hi-5 for the U.K., for launch on its preschool channel
Cartoonito this year.

Forty half-hour episodes
of the British version of Hi-5 will
be produced, with casting to begin next month. Following Cartoonito’s premiere
this year, the series will debut on free-to-air broadcaster GMTV in 2009.

Kids Like Us, the
producers of Hi-5, was recently
acquired by Nine Network and Southern Star International, which distributes the
show. To date, 435 half-hour episodes of the series have been produced, while
25 DVD/videos, nearly 80 books and 11 CDs have been released. Hi-5 now airs in 118 countries with a global audience
reach in excess of 5 million people in Asia, the U.K., the U.S. and Latin
America. More than 2 million tickets have been sold worldwide to Hi-5 concerts, and there are currently four new casts
touring Latin America, with licensing agents and DVD distributors set up in Argentina,
Mexico and Brazil.

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Cecilia Persson, the VP of
programming, acquisitions and presentation at Turner Kids Channels, said: “Hi-5 has enjoyed world-renowned success and we’re
delighted to commission a U.K.-produced version. Each week the series will focus on some of Hi-5’s most notable themes such as music, friends,
animals, family and outdoors. Underpinned with an ethos of exercise and dance,
it also has positive messaging of encouraging kids to get active. We look
forward to introducing this new British version of Hi-5 to Cartoonito’s lineup, which will sit well with
other U.K. commissions on Cartoonito, which include Go and Be and Grown Up and Cartoonito Karaoke.”

Billy Macqueen, of Darrall
Macqueen, added: “This is an exciting opportunity that will see us scouring the
United Kingdom to find our fabulous five presenters! We also anticipate that a
U.K. tour with the cast of Hi-5
will kick off in 2009, bringing the Hi-5 experience to audiences throughout the U.K.”

—By Irene Lew