On January 1, the Russian animated series Moonzy and His Friends, produced by Melnitsa animation studio and Perviy, launched on the CCTV Children’s Channel, owned by CCTV, the main public television network in Mainland China.

According to the data collected from Kyun EYE (pro.eye.kuyun.com), a widely used monitoring system in TV and OTT area, Moonzy ranked first among morning kids programs during the first two weeks of broadcasting. CCTV will broadcast 513 episodes of the series. Now as the winter holidays have commenced in China, the channel has decided to broadcast 9 episodes daily.

Producer Sergei Selyanov commented: “This is a great achievement. Our animation series is aired on the Chinese public television with high ratings. Our animation is sold to many countries now, however, I will point out that Russian studios make only the first move here and we must take hold of the international markets next. It is an absolutely favorable moment as the quality of Russian movies and animation has been growing rapidly and foreign TV channels and digital platforms are getting much more commercially interested in Russian projects than previously. China is one of the most strategic partners for us and we are looking forward to successful development of that cooperation.”

Kirill Filippov, CEO of SPB TV which brokered the deal with CCTV, added: “SPB TV has been working with Chinese media with great success starting from 2013. We are constantly participating in Russian-Chinese business missions and joined structures growing our portfolio of contacts and strengthening our relationships with Chinese partners. We are very happy that our expertise and contacts help the unique Russian animation series enter the Chinese market and we strongly believe in further successful development of the project in China.”