Kids round-up: Mondo TV’s ‘Invention Story’ sells; De Agostini relaunch; TVOKids taps BGM for ‘Abby’s Farm’

Invention Story

Mondo TV’s Invention Story sells

European animator and distributor Mondo TV has struck deals for its action-comedy Invention Story.

The show, which launched on Frisbee in Italy recently, has been sold to Russian free-to-air kids channel Karusel and in Hungary on TV2 and its dedicated kids’ channel Kiwi.

Streamer Kidoodle.TV has also taken rights, which cover all countries except China, where Invention Story launched on the Mango TV digital platform last summer. It is set to premiere on the broadcaster CCTV later this year.

The 3D CGI show tells the tale of Kit, an intelligent, thoughtful, footloose and creative fox who, in each episode, comes up with an amazing new invention that impresses most of the rabbit residents of his adopted home Carrot Town.

De Agostini launches KidsMe

Italian publisher De Agostini has launched KidsMe, a newly created company that will incorporate the Italian firm’s children and family output.

KidsMe will develop, produce and distribute kid-skewing content and is being headed up by president Pier Francesco Gherardi and CEO Massimo Bruno.

Brenda Maffuchi is chief of co-productions, licensing and sales officer, while Alba Chiara Rondelli is original productions chief.

The new company, whose operations previously fell under the remit of Digital De Agostini, has also struck a multi-year output deal with ViacomCBS Italia.

Four live-action sitcoms are in the works and co-productions with European partners are being sought.

TVOkids visits Abby’s Farm with BGM

TVOkids has ordered a pre-school show from BGM Inc, the Toronto-based content-creation company recently acquired by Datsit Sphere from Kew Media Group.

Abby’s Farm (working title) is a 30 x 7 minute series that is aimed at three- to five-year-olds. It series explores daily life on a working farm from the perspective of six-year-old Abby.

The show has been ordered by the director of kids TV at TVO, Marney Malabar, and will be exec produced by Malabar for TVOkids, and Daniel Bourré, Sean Connelly and Marlo Miazga for BGM.

Designed to complement Abby’s Farm, BGM has also produced a short-form learning-focused series called Count With Abby! (20 x 2 minutes). Expanding on the numeracy theme, each two-minute video will feature an original intro, followed by three counting moments gleaned from the main series.