'Prehistoric Park' Enjoys Monster Success

FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) has reported that its flagship factual entertainment series 'Prehistoric Park', from the award-winning Impossible Pictures, is enjoying success equal to its prolific proportions.
Less than 12 months after its MIPTV ’06 launch, Prehistoric Park towers head and shoulders above a crowded marketplace, across multiple platforms.
As one example of FME’s true multi-platform brands, there is a tremendous presence around the 6 x 60’ Prehistoric Park series across each of the international distribution, home entertainment and licensing arenas, with results that speak for themselves.
With a larger-than-life impact on TV, Prehistoric Park is now licensed by a total of 52 broadcasters worldwide. New territories range as far and wide as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Iceland, and Italy right through to China, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and Colombia.
Nigel Marven’s Prehistoric Park adventures are proving similarly popular in the home entertainment field, with the series’ DVD rights licensed to more than 30 territories including the UK, where it has sold over 150,000 units since its launch in September 2006. Among the other territories sold to are USA / Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Greece, Italy, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.
In addition to these deals, a number of licensing agreements have been secured, reflecting the scale and breadth of platforms readily embracing Prehistoric Park. In the UK an exclusive range of five consumer products, developed by Tigerprint, will be available in Marks & Spencer stores nationwide and feature a 3D puzzle, race to the rescue boardgame, Dino-Puzzle, Dino-Pics photography kit complete with digital camera and greeting cards.
In the US, FME’s licensing team has granted rights to Meredith Books to publish a Prehistoric Park fun fact book, following Nigel Marven and his team through their adventures. Global children's publishing, education and media company, Scholastic, ordered over 360,000 units for an exclusive launch at Scholastic Bookfairs which targets 65,000 schools across the US. The book will also be available in Borders and other retailers nationwide.
David Ellender, CEO FremantleMedia Enterprises commented: “This is truly a mighty performance from a spectacular series. The fact that it has become such a runaway international hit across multiple platforms is testament to the outstanding quality of the series and how adaptable the content and themes are for so many platforms in so many countries. We look forward to our continuing relationship with both Impossible Pictures and Nigel Marven, a presenter who is fast becoming the new face of wildlife.”
Jasper James, Company Founder, Impossible Pictures added: “We always hoped with this series that we could create something that was not only visually spectacular and entertaining but also delivered a wealth of real information. Nigel Marven's enthusiasm and gung-ho attitude were an essential part of making it all work. It's an unbelievable buzz to hear just how many audiences around the world are now being transported to Prehistoric Park.”
Created by UK independent producers Impossible Pictures, the multi award-winning creators of the Walking With... series, Prehistoric Park is fronted by natural history expert Nigel Marven and is a co-production between ITV (UK), Animal Planet (US), M6 (France) and ProSieben (Germany).
(DS/SP)