French diginet Gulli has inked a deal with DHX Media to acquire the exclusive free-TV rights and the non-exclusive VOD rights for the rebooted Teletubbies series in a deal that covers several French-speaking territories, including France.

Teletubbies will bow in France on the channel in early 2016, and will also be available on Gulli’s online platform GulliMax. The deal also covers French-language broadcasts where Gulli is available, including Monaco, Andorra, Mauritius, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Russia, Maghreb, Near and Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Poland, Romania, Portugal, Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Slovenia, Belarus and Israel. Gulli will also air Teletubbies in 22 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa via its pay TV network Gulli AFRICA.

This latest deal follows announcements the rebooted series will air on Family Jr. in Canada and Nickelodeon in the US. DHX Media has also appointed Toronto-based Spin Master to distribute Characters Options’ range of plush, plastics and bath Teletubbies toys across Canada, the US, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The series is being produced for DHX Media by UK production company Darrall Macqueen. DHX Media acquired all rights to the Teletubbies franchise when it purchased Ragdoll Worldwide, the joint-venture between BBC Worldwide and Ragdoll Productions in 2013 for US$27.7 million.

The original series created by Anne Wood debuted in 1997 and went on to air in more than 120 territories in 45 languages.

– From Playback