Dublin animation company wins Nickelodeon deal

Dublin animation company Jam Media announced today that the television rights to its award winning interactive children’s animation series ‘PICME’, have been bought by MTV Networks International for Nickelodeon channels across Europe, Asia and Latin America.

The five-year deal will see all 104, five-minute long episodes of PICME rolled out to Nickelodeon channels around the world including Holland, Scandinavia, Italy, Latin America, Japan and Australia, from late Spring 2006.

PICME has been running on RTE 2’s ‘The Den’ since September 2004 and has proved extremely popular with its young audience.

The series is the largest animation commission in the history of RTE and has been re-commissioned three times. PICME also airs on Nick Jr., UK which can be seen in Ireland and the UK.

PICME is an animation series for pre-school children where young viewers can be the star of the cartoon alongside a group of animal friends.

JAM Media have developed a broadcast ready software package that allows broadcasters to easily superimpose a child’s face onto an animated body and place them into the PICME environment. It creates a unique interaction between broadcaster and audience.

Each PICME story is tailored to introduce basic concepts through fun and exploration. The series is bright and colourful with engaging characters and stories that entertain while enhancing kids’ learning experiences.

John Rice, chief executive Officer of Jam Media said at the announcement today: “I’m thrilled to be partnering with Nickelodeon. PICME is a great series to work on and it has really clicked with our target audience. They love the interactive element of it, seeing their photo on TV and taking part in adventures with the other characters.”

PICME won the best digital storytelling category at the 2005 Digital Media Awards, and consequently, JAM Media took home the overall prize for digital media companies Ireland, the Grand Prix Award 2005. Most recently, PICME won the award for Best Youth Programme at the Irish Film and Television Awards 2005.