Live-action tween series continue to be a premium category in the international kids market.

ACC Kids, the Alliance Atlantis children’s label, pitched all 22 new-season episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation (for a total of 37) at MIPCOM 2002. The live-action series, produced by Epitome Pictures in association with CTV, with the Web component developed in association with Snap Media, was the number-one Canadian drama for CTV in 2001.

Ken Faier, VP AAC Kids, says the division is targeting three program demographics – all genres of evergreen production including live-action and stop-motion for the three- to five-year-old preschool set; boys action TV series, six to 11, primarily animation with the potential for extensions to film, toys and other merchanising; and tween properties for the eight to 14 crowd, specifically, live-action drama/comedy.

Faier says the international kids market remains extremely difficult. ‘But there is much less [programming] in production so the volume business is over. We were never in the volume business. Our projects all have to make sense on their own merit in a very tough environment. I know there will be a lot less shlock getting in [our] way.’

At MIPCOM, AAC Kids also pitched its proprietary stop-motion animation series Henry’s World, as well as the new $5-million Zone3 live-action tween series Mental/Normal (working title), currently in production.

Henry has been sold to various Latin American markets, to La Cinquieme and Disney Channel in France and to ABC in Australia.

The company also pitched Stacy and Friends (13 half-hours), in development with Asian prodco Kayenta. It was presold to France 2 for 2003 and is based on the British book series by Allen Jones. Another property, Whistler 4+1, a 13 x 30 tween culture drama, was presold to Family Channel in Canada.

In preschool, two new AAC Kids series are Poko, a 39 half-hour, stop-motion comedy about an inquisitive three-year-old, currently in production with Halifax’s Salter Street for the CBC; and Peep and the Big Wide World (26 half-hours), in preproduction at Toronto Flash animation studio Nine Story Entertainment. Peep is being produced in association with Boston’s WGBH Productions and broadcast partners Discovery Kids and TVOntario. Rendered in 2D Flash animation, Peep is based on an early 1990s National Film Board short narrated by Sir Peter Ustinov.