Six Deals Signed Including Random House For UK Publishing
14th June, 2012 – FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) announced today a raft of licensees in significant categories for UK & Eire for the heroic pre-school property Tree Fu Tom™. Random House Children’s Publishers (RHCP) has signed for publishing; Aykroyd and TDP for children’s nightwear and underwear; Trade Mark Collections for bags, wallets and umbrellas; Spearmark for lunchware, tableware & drinkware and lighting; Worlds Apart for bedroom and play accessories; and Character World for bedroom textiles, furniture and accessories.
Under the four year agreement, RHCP has the publishing rights for all categories, apart from annuals. The licensing programme will begin its full roll out next year with toys, publishing and apparel launching in spring/summer followed by all other major categories in autumn/winter.
A number of products will appear at retail ahead of the full roll out with FremantleMedia Home Entertainment launching the first DVD release launching this autumn.
Pindy O’ Brien, FME VP UK Brand Licensing and Retail said: “Tree Fu Tom has been a huge hit on screen and the reaction from within the industry has been incredible. We are delighted to announce this prestigious set of new partners and look forward to working with them to develop a magical product range.”
FME holds the worldwide distribution (excluding UK) and ancillary rights for Tree Fu Tom and is set to announce additional deals in further categories for the pre-school property in the near future.
Tree Fu Tom combines innovative elements of heroic action, fantasy and magic, coupled with unique interactive physical activity. Set in an enchanted world where movement creates magic, viewers are encouraged to interact with the show through physical actions that have been devised and approved by movement development specialists to assist in the development of children. Former Doctor Who stars Sophie Aldred and David Tennant voice the lead characters Tom and Twigs. The series airs on CBeebies and is the channel’s number one show of the year to date (Source: BARB, consolidated data).
With animation by award-winning Blue Zoo Animation, Tree Fu Tom is a co-production between FME and the BBC for CBeebies. The executive producers for the BBC are Jackie Edwards and Alison Stewart, and Bob Higgins and Sander Schwartz for FME. Tree Fu Tom was created by and is produced by Daniel Bays.
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About FME Kids & Family Entertainment
FME Kids & Family Entertainment division was founded in 2009 and has quickly become a worldwide leader in the family entertainment business. With 15 titles in production in collaboration with top producers on four continents, FME Kids & Family Entertainment is already one of the most prolific independent producers and distributors of content in the sector today. Its growing portfolio of content spans across four key genres: preschool, kids comedy, action/adventure and tween/teen fare. FME Kids & Family Entertainment is bringing to networks around the world innovative and exciting shows for television and new media platforms in live-action, 2D animation, CGI, stop-motion, puppetry and real-time animation with programming targeting demographics ranging in scope from preschool through high school.
ABOUT FREMANTLEMEDIA ENTERPRISES & FREMANTLEMEDIA
FremantleMedia is one of the leading creators and producers of entertainment brands in the world. FremantleMedia is part of the RTL Group, Europe's largest television and radio broadcast company, which is in turn 90 percent owned by Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's major media and entertainment companies. FremantleMedia’s worldwide production arm is responsible for many of the world’s highest rated prime time entertainment, drama, serial drama and factual entertainment programmes. FremantleMedia Enterprises is the brand extension arm of FremantleMedia, offering a one-stop-shop for all Licensing, Distribution and Home Entertainment around the world. The FremantleMedia Group (which includes FremantleMedia North America, UFA, FremantleMedia UK, FremantleMedia Australia and Original Productions amongst others) has operations in 22 countries, one of the most comprehensive global networks, creating nearly 10,000 hours of programming a year, rolling out more than 60 formats and managing over 300 individual titles. FremantleMedia has some of the world’s most sought after and long running formats in its catalogue, and globally, produces such programmes as: Idols (co-produced with 19 Productions in the US), Hole In The Wall, Got Talent (co-produced with Syco in the UK and the US), The X Factor (co-produced with Syco in the UK), Take Me Out, Family Feud, The Price is Right, Farmer Wants A Wife, Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten, and Neighbours.
About CBeebies
CBeebies is dedicated to delighting and surprising its young audience and it remains the UK's most watched and most loved channel for the under-sixes. Half of the target audience tune in every week (parents and carers with children aged 0-3 and four- to six-year-olds in digital homes) with 57% saying it is one of their favourite channels. Our reach is almost three times that of our nearest competitor. Our most popular shows include In the Night Garden, Something Special, Justin’s House and Waybuloo. New shows this year include Andy’s Wild Adventures and Tree Fu Tom together with new episodes of the popular series Mr Bloom’s Nursery and Rastamouse. The CBeebies website is also hugely popular with our young audience and their parents and helps extend the ‘learning through play’ philosophy. Last year it averaged over 890k unique users. CBeebies has been crowned BAFTA’s Children’s Channel of the Year for the second year running and is Freesat’s Channel of the Year.
About Random House Children’s Publishers UK
Random House Children’s Publishers UK (RHCP) is an award-winning publisher for children of all ages. Its bestselling authors include Sir Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Lauren Kate, Christopher Paolini and Joe Delaney and illustrators Quentin Blake, Shirley Hughes, Louise Yates and Nadia Shireen. It is home to successful series such as Astrosaurs and Battersea Dogs and its licensed properties include Transformers Prime and Spiderman, RHCP also holds the current DreamWorks publishing licence. The company is proud to publish five of the Children’s Laureates. RHCP is developing a range of innovative digital publishing projects, including the Mortal Kiss story serialisation which ran with Stardoll and won a Digital Innovation Award. RHCP is part of The Random House Group owned by Bertelsmann, one of the world’s largest media groups.
For more information please contact:
Valerie Taylor
Publicity Consultant Kids & Family FremantleMedia Enterprises
07889 666594
valerie@valerie-taylor.co.uk
Mary Jones
Interim Sr. PR Manager
FremantleMedia Enterprises
Tel: 0207 7691 6515
Mary.jones@fremantlemedia.com