Silvergate Media Secures Octonauts Co-Pro Pact with CCTV

LONDON: Silvergate Media is set to co-produce the fifth season of Octonauts with China Central TV (CCTV).

According to the agreement, Silvergate will provide the script and music, while CCTV will develop the animation. In addition to being broadcast across China, including on key regional satellite channels, the series will be distributed worldwide. CCTV will sign a memorandum of understanding with Silvergate as part of the state visit to the U.K. by the president of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping.

The first three seasons of Octonauts were originally broadcast on CCTV in June 2014, with the second and third seasons re-broadcast in June and July of this year, and again in September.

William Astor, the chairman of Silvergate, said, “Three series of Octonauts and two series of Peter Rabbit have already been broadcast by CCTV and I am therefore delighted that we will be developing the next series of Octonauts in collaboration with CCTV. This is CCTV's first co-production to develop a preschool animation series with a Western media company. China is one of the fastest growing preschool markets globally, and with both Peter Rabbit and Octonauts, we have now a well-established foothold. Both are proving very popular, for example, Octonauts has registered over 1.8 billion hits on its web TV channels since 2014."

He added, “This co-production is an excellent example of our mission to develop world-class children's brands which inspire, entertain, educate and engage through innovative content, great products and strong partnerships. This is the culmination of three years of visits and I hope this will lead to further co-production projects between CCTV and Silvergate in the future."