The Toronto based studio – 9 Story Entertainment – continues to strengthen its content portfolio. It now owns the international selling rights for the award-winning children’s animated series Arthur. Longstanding broadcast partners for the series, CBBC (UK), ABC TV (Australia) and Noga (Israel), have each signed on for new seasons 18 and 19.
9 Story became producer and distributor of the popular series in a co-venture with WGBH Boston and PBS commencing with season 16. The series is now in HD and has been digitally refreshed. Arthur is the one of the longest-running TV shows on PBS Kids (US), and has also been licensed to CBC (Canada), Minika (Turkey), Minimax (Eastern Europe), True Visions (Thailand) and EBS (Korea).
Based on the best-selling books by Marc Brown, Arthur revolves around the adventures of an eight-year-old aardvark and his family and friends. The series has aired in 83 countries and is considered a phenomenon holding the title for one of the longest-running children’s animated series in the US.
It also boasts of being a winner of four Emmy awards for outstanding Children’s Animation Program, a BAFTA award, as well as a Peabody Award.
9 Story Entertainment is one of the industry’s leading creators, producers and distributors of award-winning animated and live-action content for young audiences around the world. With one of North America’s largest animation studios based in Toronto, 9 Story has over 200 creative and production staff, and has produced over 900 half hours of quality children’s and family programming, seen on some of the most respected children’s channels around the world across multiple platforms.
The company’s distribution arm 9 Story Enterprises represents a growing catalogue which includes several beloved brands such as Arthur, Wibbly Pig, Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, Wild Kratts and Almost Naked Animals in addition to exciting new series such as Numb Chucks, Camp Lakebottom, Cache Craze, Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood and Nerds and Monsters. The company recently acquired CCI Kids, the family content division of CCI Entertainment, increasing 9 Story’s portfolio to over 1600 half hours of content with popular shows such as Guess How Much I Love You, Joe & Jack, Artzooka! and Extreme Babysitting.