TV-Loonland Sells Leon to New Territories

MUNICH/LONDON: TV-Loonland has racked up a number of sales with international broadcasters for its animated series Leon, which follows one of the world’s unluckiest lions.

In Europe, the series has been licensed to Disney Spain for its DTT channel, and further free-TV deals include the Scandinavian broadcasters TV4 Sweden, DRTV Denmark, MTV3 Finland and the Icelandic Broadcasting Corporation RUV. Other deals were with TV3 Catalunya and Novi Mediji for Croatia. Chellozone Media, formerly MINIMAX, picked up the pay-TV rights across Central European territories, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and the former Yugoslavia.

A home-video deal for Leon was signed with ABC Australia and Global TV Indonesia acquired the TV rights. These follow on the recent acquisitions from German kids’ broadcaster SUPER RTL, CBBC in the U.K. and ABC in Australia.

The series, co-produced by Studio Hari, TV-Loonland and France 3, follows a lion who, despite his true hunter instinct, is often turned from predator into prey. The show is currently in production, set for full delivery by Christmas.

Justine Bannister, the head of distribution for TV-Loonland, said: “We couldn´t be happier with the lineup of major broadcasters already signed up for Leon. It’s a fantastic testimonial for the universal appeal of the show and we expect more broadcasters to recognize this outstandingly animated and highly entertaining series as a ‘must-see’ for their audiences and a ‘must-have’ in their respective programming grids. Forgive the pun, but Leon is destined to be a roaring success worldwide in no time at all.”