‘Barney’ & ‘Angelina Ballerina’ Back In Business & More – Mipcom Briefs

Mattel Inc’s preschool entertainment arm HiT Entertainment and 9 Story Media Group are joining to relaunch Barney & Friends and Angelina Ballerina, two well-known TV staples for the youth set. The plan announced today at Mipcom is to develop new series for each property with a target 2017 launch.

“The refresh and relaunch of Barney and Angelina Ballerina represents an exciting start to our partnership with 9 Story,” said Kate Schlomann, HiT Entertainment’s VP Global Brand Marketing. “Both brands continue to enjoy large fan bases around the world among both pre-schoolers and their parents, who often grew up with the characters themselves.”

Barney originally aired from 1992-2009, with 248 episodes in the library plus 25 hours of specials. Angelina Ballerina, based on the books created by author Katharine Holabird and illustrator Helen Craig, originally aired from 2001-2006 and ran for two seasons with 39 episodes and three specials.

Screenwriter Paul Abbott’s new crime drama No Offence has been sold by FremantleMedia International to France France Télévisions, with the series set to premiere on France 2. FMI has now sold the show to ABC (Australia), NOP (Netherlands), Hot (Israel), DR (Denmark) and RUV (Iceland) after acquiring rights earlier this year. Set in a close-knit policing unit located in North West England, No Offence follows a committed team of officers as they crack down on crime and attempt to enforce the law in this chaotic community. Joanna Scanlon, Elaine Cassidy and Alexandra Roach star alongside Will Mellor, Paul Ritter and Colin Salmon.

ITV Studios Global Entertainment and South Korea’s CJ E&M have signed a format collaboration agreement that will see ITV Studios take two of CJ E&M’s Korean game formats — CJ’s longest-running entertainment program From Start To Clear and The Genius Game — to UK broadcasters, while CJ E&M will look at two of ITV Studios’ GE’s formats — The Secret Life Of Students and Come Date With Me — for its family of channels. The companies will also work together to develop the formats for other broadcasters. From Start To Clear centers on a celebrity host and his guests playing a computer game, but the twist is they can’t stop until they finish the game — in South Korea, the longest shooting time was 80 hours for one game.