Toonz Media Group has acquired a majority stake in the large full-service Emmy winning production house Telegael, extending the group’s global entertainment footprint and adding important pre and postproduction facilities to its animation operatioh, as well as a large live action studio to its entertainment business, hence enabling it to become a major 360 entertainment outfit.
The deal between India-based Toonz and Ireland’s Telegael brings many strategic synergies, making this a complementary venture for both companies. As part of this strategic venture, Toonz benefits from having an award-winning, successful and highly active pre and post-production studio, as well as a live action capacity amongst its business divisions.
Telegael now becomes part of one of Asia’s largest and most dynamic entertainment groups, with a 400-talent strong studio in India, producing around 10,000 minutes of 2D & 3D animation and visual effects annually and joins a group with full-scale financing, production, distribution and broadcast offices in 10 major countries around the globe.
In July 2018, Toonz announced the co-production of its new 52×12’ CGI comedy series Mondo Yan, partnering with Telegael, Spanish broadcaster TV3 from Catalunya and Imira Entertainment. Telegael is handling part of the pre-production and all postproduction of the series. Toonz-owned Imira Entertainment handles worldwide distribution of the series.
Toonz Media Group, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary, will through this acquisition, increase its in-house development and IP Creation business with Telegael’s design and preproduction division, amounting to a significant increase in European production with global appeal and more titles added to Toonz’s slate, which is distributed globally by Toonz’s Imira.
Toonz Media Group CEO P. Jayakumar, said of the partnership, “The addition of proven pre-production and post-production facilities, together with existing distribution capabilities and our globally recognised production expertise delivers synergistic and customer benefits that exceed the sum of the parts. This new acquisition will enable Toonz to deliver world class end to end services to existing and future customers across the globe”
Established in 1988 and employing the services of up to 350 talent and entertainment professionals, including fulltime and contract, Telegael co-produces animated and live action content for a range of international partners and broadcasters. Its clients include some of the biggest names in global broadcasting including The Walt Disney Company, Netflix, Lionsgate, NBC Universal Sprout, BBC, Discovery, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, ARD and ZDF. Telegael has produced more than 1,000 hours of television, which have been distributed to over 150 territories and translated into over 50 languages.
Paul Cummins, CEO of Telegael, added, “The Toonz deal provides Telegael with exciting opportunities to further grow our IP and service production by becoming part of a dynamic global entertainment group with involvement and expertise in 2D and 3D production, visual FX, global distribution, financing, gaming, licensing and merchandising. The deal offers substantial synergies and the opportunity to be part of a large vertically integrated global entertainment group.”
