Renewals for Fireman Sam & Polly Pocket

Mattel Television and WildBrain have greenlit a 13th season of Fireman Sam as well as a third season of Polly Pocket, based on Mattel’s original micro-scale doll brand.

Season 13 of Fireman Sam will bring the Pontypandy Firefighting team back for more animated adventures, launching in 2021. Set to premiere in May 2021, season three of Polly Pocket will follow Polly and her friends as she uses tiny power to unlock big adventures and laughs.

These new seasons are part of an ongoing multi-year, co-development, production, distribution and licensing agreement between Mattel and WildBrain. The new seasons of both shows will be animated by WildBrain’s studio in Vancouver, BC. Further, as the distributor for both series, WildBrain has inked agreements with a number of broadcasters and streaming services for Fireman Sam and Polly Pocket.

In multi-territory deals, season 11 of Fireman Sam has been picked up by Netflix for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Central Eastern Europe, France, Italy, Netherlands, Benelux, Australia and New Zealand; and also by Hopster for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and D.O.M.-T.O.M. Season 11 has also been licensed to Disney Channel (India), MediaPlex (Thailand), and ICI.Tou.tvExtra (SRC) (Canada). Previous partners taking season 11 include Milkshake! (U.K.), British Telecom (U.K.), RTE (Ireland), Canal+ (France), VTM Kids (Belgium), Antena 3 (Spain), RSI (Switzerland), MiniMini+ (Poland), Puls 2 (Poland), MTVA (Hungary), Pixel TV (Ukraine), Carousel (Russia), Minimax (Eastern Europe), Showmax (Africa) and English Gem (South Korea). In the U.S., season 11 is also available on the AVOD platforms XUMO, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel.

Seasons 11 and 12 of Fireman Sam, as well as an hour-long special titled “Norman Price and the Mystery in the Sky,” have been picked up by France Télévisions (France), KIKA (Germany), Cartoonito (Italy, U.K.), Canal Panda (Portugal), RTL Telekids (the Netherlands), NRK (Norway), MiniMini+ (Poland), HOP! Channel (Israel) and ABC (Australia). Justbridge (Germany) has secured theatrical and DVD rights to season 12 and the special.

Season two of Polly Pocket has also been picked up by Netflix (U.S., Italy, LatAm, Canada, UKIE, Australia, France, Belgium, Russia, Greece, Africa, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland). Additional partners taking season two include SuperRTL (Germany), Antena 3 (Spain) and Gulli (France, Russia, and French Africa). Seasons two and three of the series have been picked up by Discovery Kids (LatAm), MiniMini+ (Poland) and TVNZ OnDemand (New Zealand).

Alex Godfrey, senior director of content distribution at Mattel, said: “At Mattel Television, we are focused on producing compelling episodic content based on our iconic franchises. Polly Pocket and Fireman Sam both have a significant fan base, and WildBrain continues to be a fantastic production and distribution partner, enabling us to bring these popular shows to a broad global audience.”

Caroline Tyre, VP of global sales and rights strategy at WildBrain, said: “Fireman Sam and Polly Pocket are treasured brands from Mattel that have each found devoted fans around the world with new generations of kids. We’re looking forward to teaming up with Mattel Television to create more Sam and Polly adventures to share with families through our valued broadcast and streaming partners.”