Em.tv, Roadshow Earmark $80 Mil For Ani Co-prod'n

Munich-based TV production and merchandising company EM.TV & Merchandising AG has sealed an $80 million co-production pact with Sydney-based animation studio Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow to co-finance the production of 10 animated children's TV series during the next five years.
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With Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow producing the 10 series, the tentative financial plan is to split the $80 million worth of budgets evenly between EM.TV and Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow, which is a subsidiary of Australia's largest entertainment company, Village Roadshow Ltd.

"At the moment, we plan to go 50-50 in the financing," EM.TV's CEO Thomas Haffa said, "but we're open to other partners coming in."

"The minimum we will get is all German-language rights," Haffa said, "but ideally we want all European rights. We will define it project by project."

Monday's announcement comes on the eve of the initial public issue of EM.TV, which plans to begin selling shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange this month.

The 10 series will each have 26 half-hour episodes. EM.TV and Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow have only announced two titles: "Flipper and the Milihune," featuring the dolphin of live-action TV fame, and a second season of the German TV show "Tabaluga," about a little green dragon.

"What we wanted was for Yoram Gross to work exclusively for us in Europe," Haffa said. The 10 new series during the next five years "will give us a reasonable push in Europe," he added.

"With the most significant animation base in Australia, a proven merchandising and distribution business in Europe, and our own international co-production and distribution relations, we now have a stronghold in the international animation arena," Greg Coote, president and CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures, and Jeffrey Hayes, president of Village Roadshow Pictures Television, said in a statement.

The EM.TV group has worked with Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow on the animated series "Blinky Bill" and the first season of "Tabaluga."

Yoram Gross Film Studios in Sydney has produced 15 animated features since it was established by Yoram Gross in 1975. Village Roadshow bought a 50% stake in Yoram Gross Film Studios in January.

EM.TV is one of Germany's largest merchandising companies and has recently branched into animated production, including the feature and series "Lapitch the Little Shoe Maker."