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S potlight
Growth Spurt
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Cyber Group Studios has more than a dozen toons in production or development — and has landed shows in the U.S. By Tom McLean.
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nniversaries are always fun to celebrate, but as Cyber Group Studios is finding out, it’s much more fun to do so when your anniversary year is your most successful to date. In the past year, the Paris-based studio — celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2015 — has seen tremendous growth in international sales and digital. Cyber Group Studios CEO Pierre Sissmann says the studio has expanded its sales all over the world and now boasts around 150 clients worldwide. Its digital business has been growing rapidly based on the strength of the 68 www.animationmagazine.net june 15
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catalog of about a thousand half-hours of programming. And, perhaps most satisfying, the studio’s shows have sold to America, with the preschool series Zou airing in the United States on Sprout as well as on Hulu and PlayKids TV, while Mademoiselle Zazie and Ozie Boo are streaming on Splash Entertainment’s free VOD platform Kabillion. “For us it was a big move as a French producer to get into North America,” says Sissmann. Building on his experience in marketing at Sony Music and with Disney helping, among
other things, found and run Disney Channel France, Sissmann started Cyber Group Studios 10 years ago with five people working in three rooms. Now the company has more than 200 employees and occupies its own building in Paris. The company made a big bet about three years ago by expanding its presence in the preschool space, where it first found success, as well as expanding into shows for older children, in the 4-6 and 6-12 demographics. Now the studio has at least 15 shows either in production or in development — and more continued on page 70
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