After putting out a call in the spring for third-party shows to add to its catalogue, Irish studio Sixteen South has picked up the distribution rights to Mackinnon & Saunders’ popular preschool series Mixmups. 

The CG/2D/stop-motion series (52 x 10 minutes) is about three young friends who imagine pretend-play scenarios, like having a machine that grants wishes, for example. Since premiering in 2023, the series has been a ratings success in the UK (Milkshake!), Canada (TVOKids and Knowledge Network), Ireland (RTÉ) and Australia (ABC). 

Two of its main characters have visible disabilities: One uses a wheelchair and the other is partially sighted. The show also has 10 online episodes designed to be more accessible for children with disabilities. They’re included in the distribution deal, along with the core series’ 52 eps. 

Mixmups has international appeal because at its core, the show is about play and imagination, which are globally relevant themes, says creator Rebecca Atkinson. “Children all over the world share the kind of innate sense of play and wonder that Mixmups is all about.”

For Sixteen South, global appeal was just one of the reasons to pick it up, says studio founder and creative director Colin Williams. The other? Mixmups feels like a show Sixteen South could have made, he says. 

“When we saw this on TV a while back, we said to ourselves ‘Ah, shit, I wish we had made that show,'” Williams explains. Its strong animation and storytelling, and the fact it represents kids with disabilities—an audience the studio has never reached before with its own shows—all motivated the company to take it on. 

And in truth, Sixteen South does not plan on becoming a company with such a large distribution catalogue that it has neither “the option or time” to sell, he adds. But with Mixmups, there’s an opportunity to give broadcasters around the world something they’re looking for: A show with a lot of heart that can entertain and also speak to the large number of kids worldwide with disabilities. 

Sixteen South has a strong track record when it comes to shopping its own content. It sold the preschool series Odo into more than 160 countries, including the UK (Milkshake!) and Germany (KiKA). It also secured greenlights from France Télévisions, Tencent and Globo for Coop Troop and sold 2D-animated Lily’s Driftwood Bay into more than 120 countries, including sales to Nick Jr. (UK and Ireland) and KiKA. And most recently, This Moose Belongs To Me (the company’s first special) attracted one of the biggest crowds—and the most buyers—at Cartoon Forum last month. 

Now it’s trying its hand at selling someone else’s series for the first time. The studio announced this move into third-party distribution back in April, as part of a wider company restructure. At the time, the studio said it was only looking to acquire one show to start. 

Mixmups made the cut also because from a business perspective, it targets the younger end of the preschool demo, whereas Sixteen South’s series tend to skew a little more bridge. This means the company won’t be stepping on its own toes when it takes the series to market, says Alexandros van Blanken, GM of Sixteen South Rights. 

Van Blanken has already started reaching out about the show to existing clients, including European pubcasters, which is the group he’s going to be targeting the hardest at MIPCOM and throughout the rest of the year.