Xilam’s Where’s Chicky? Franchise Expands Globally
Academy Award®-nominated French animation studio Xilam Animation is amplifying the global expansion of its hit non-dialogue comedy franchise, Where’s Chicky? (seasons 1 and 2: 104 x 1’), with the production of fresh content, new broadcast partners, a rapidly growing digital presence, and growing footprint in China.
Where’s Chicky? is a short-form animated series, produced by Xilam’s CGI specialist studio Cube Creative Productions, which follows an adorable little chick who discovers a new place and/or an unknown object in each of his adventures. Production on a new third season of 52 x 1’ episodes is now underway and is slated for delivery in December 2021. The series is directed by William Hoareau.
Xilam handles worldwide sales for Where’s Chicky and has secured new broadcast partners including France Télévisions (France), YLE (Finland), NRK (Norway), VRT (Flemish Belgium) as well as VOD platform MBC (Middle East and North Africa) for seasons 1, 2 and 3; and SRC (Radio Canada), Etisalat (UAE), Choirock (South Korea) and Astro (Malaysia) for seasons 2 and 3.
Seasons 1 and 2 are also now available on over 15 digital platforms internationally, including Tubi TV (USA and Mexico), Amazon Prime Video (worldwide excl. France), Roku Channel (USA and UK), Shahid and eJunior (MENA), PlayKids (North and Latin America), Facebook Video (Western Europe, USA and Canada) and Rakuten TV (Western Europe), and local services such as Toon Goggles (US), Sky Kids (UK), Mediaset (Italia), Galaxy (Vietnam) and Joyn (Germany). The series is also available on AVOD Safe Streaming™ video service, Kidoodle.TV, where it has ranked as the platform’s second-best performing title in June and July 2021.
The Where’s Chicky? TikTok account has also reached 1M subscribers and recently entered the platform’s top five accounts for licensed kids’ brands. On YouTube, Where’s Chicky? continues to grow and is now generating 100M monthly views globally, with a total of 2M subscribers across Xilam’s four language channels, which offer versions in Russian, Spanish, English and Brazilian.
Additionally, Where’s Chicky? is expanding in China, where seasons 1 and 2 have now accumulated three billion views across all major Chinese VOD platforms. During the first half of 2021, the show’s second season achieved impressive performances, including ranking as Tencent Video’s number one kids’ new overseas series and fourth across all kids’ content; as iQiyi platform’s fourth best-performing new overseas kids’ series; and seventh for new overseas kids’ series on Youku.
Marc du Pontavice, Founder and CEO at Xilam Animation, said: “Since debuting in 2014, Where’s Chicky? has embarked on a remarkable global journey: badly identified at the start of its broadcast, this series has recently met with overwhelming success on the digital market, reaching very large audiences, especially among the youngest. The extension of its distribution on numerous platforms is paving the way to follow in the footsteps of Xilam’s biggest successes such as Oggy and the Cockroaches and Zig and Sharko. We know this is just the beginning of this franchise’s history and can’t wait to see what the future holds for this hilarious and heart-warming property.”
