Pair of channels call on Thunderbirds

MBC in the Middle East and Noga in Israel have acquired the CGI reboot of supermarionation kids show Thunderbirds.

The networks are the latest to buy the ITV Studios Global Entertainment-distributed Thunderbirds Are Go!, come after Nine Network in Australia made a prebuy earlier this year. In the UK, the show launches on ITV.

Noga will launch the show next year on its kids channel, while educational channel MBC3 will have it across the Middle East.

The show got its first ever screening at MIPJunior in Cannes, as the event settled into its new home further east along la Croisette at the Palm Beach Hotel. Richard Taylor, co-owner of New Zealand studios and Thunderbirds coprducers Weta Workshop and Pukeko Pictures, and ITVSGE’s executive producer Giles Ridge attend the screening.

The show debuts on ITV next year five decades after the original Gerry Anderson series debuted.