How do you get two Canadian holiday specials into the stateside market? Vérité International Distribution was able to ink deals with 34 TV stations across the U.S. — with a little help from a specialist distributor called Executive Program Services (EPS).

EPS sold It’s Halloween! with Jeremy and Jazzy (1 x 26 minutes; pictured) to 27 channels, while It’s the Holidays! with Jeremy and Jazzy (1 x 26 minutes) was picked up by 31. Some of these outlets include KVCR (California), KBDI (Denver), KTTZ-KCOS (Orlando) and WMTJ (Puerto Rico).

Most are airing the Halloween title on Friday (Oct. 31), while the winter holiday one-off will start running in December.

Toronto-based Vérité Films delivered both 2D-animated specials to the CBC last fall, but these EPS deals mark their first international outing, Virginia Thompson, president of both Vérité Films and its distribution arm, tells Playback sister publication Kidscreen. Vérité secured non-exclusive distribution for the specials on Amazon’s Prime Video in the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

EPS was founded in 2001 by two PBS TV veterans. Its slate primarily consists of live-action documentaries and comedies, including The Red Green Show and Vérité’s series Corner Gas, which sold particularly well stateside. This success is what led Thompson to reach out to Adams about getting Jeremy and Jazzy into U.S. households, too. At present, it’s the only children’s property in the company’s catalogue, says CEO Jerry Adams.

Local U.S. affiliate stations get the bulk of their programming from PBS, but they also have some room for programming of their choosing, and EPS has built a niche business around filling those slots. Though public media channels at large are struggling because of funding cuts in the U.S., EPS says they are still on the hunt for high-quality kids TV content that blends education with entertainment. “As many parents will tell you, the best way for children to learn is when they are having fun and not realizing that they are learning at the same time,” says Adams.

Thompson adds that Vérité is currently working on more than a dozen new specials, and the plan is to replicate the same distribution strategy for them.

A version of this story originally appeared in Kidscreen

Image courtesy of Vérité Films