News

Munich, 8 December 2010. The children’s bible series CHI RHO – The Secret has gotten off to a record start on Germany’s the public children’s channel KI.KA, with the first 13 episodes garnering a market share peaking at 26 percent among children up to the age of 13. The subsequent repeat of the first season was even seen by up to 300,000 young viewers (market share: 30 percent). CHI RHO – The Secret relates the story of little Cora, who is searching for her kidnapped father in the Holy Land with the help of a magical cube. She journeys back in time to the era of the Old and New Testaments and has many exciting adventures there. The high-quality animated series directed by Michael Schaack and Florian Wagner originated in close and, to this extent, never-before-seen collaboration with the Catholic and Evangelical Churches of Germany.

Sebastian Debertin, head of the Department of Fiction & Program Acquisition at KI.KA, says: “Thanks to our very good average market share of 21 percent, we left the competition – which was truly strong – trailing behind, and, moreover, registered tens of thousands of downloads from the Online Mediathek. This shows that the challenging program, which gave rise to critical discussions, appeals to young viewers.” CHI RHO – The Secret was coproduced by Cross Media Medienproduktion GmbH in association with the children’s channel of ARD and ZDF, Trickompany Erfurt and Beta Film, and funded by the Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung with the support of the Evangelical and Catholic Churches of Germany.

The DVD rights of CHI RHO – The Secret have been acquired by Universum Film. Heunec will be bringing out plush figures of the animated heroes in German speaking territories in the summer. Further license products are in negotiation. The soundtrack is available via Warner Bros. There are currently four CHI RHO books on the German market, published by the Gütersloher Verlagshaus; others are in production. Accompanying the series are the online worlds www.chirho.kika.de and www.chirho.tv.

CHI RHO (26x22’) is internationally distributed by Wunderbox, Beta Film’s children’s label.

For further information:

Beta Film Presse
Dorothee Stoewahse

Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15
press@betafilm.com

Photos downloadable from:

ftp.betafilm.com

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