Shane Le Chef Heads to France with Canal+
Children’s rights management company Hoho Rights (Cloudbabies, Toad & Friends) has announced that it has cooked up a deal with Canal+ in France for the acquisition of its popular preschool property Shane the Chef. The series has also been sold to MTV in Hungary and RTV in Slovakia.
The Canal + deal will see the 52×11’ CG animated series – about an energetic chef Shane who runs a restaurant with his young daughter Izzy – launch on the channel in February 2025. The opportunity came about via last year’s Kidscreen Summit networking sessions, which connected creators, producers, distributors and buyers of kids’ content for focused pitching and networking opportunities.
The recent acquisitions follow an exciting period of activity for the property which has seen the launch of a dedicated YouTube channel in Germany, Shane der Koch, which was part-funded by a grant from the UK Global Screen Fund (UKGSF), plus a spate of new live action content produced by Hoho for the brand’s dedicated global English YouTube channel. The original series has also been re-licenced by S4C in Wales and TVP in Poland.
“We are delighted that there is a growing appetite for Shane the Chef in Europe on both linear and digital platforms,” says Helen Howells, Joint Managing Director, Hoho Entertainment. It’s always exciting to sell a property to a major broadcaster and we’re equally excited that elsewhere our digital-first strategy is proving to be a recipe for success for the brand too. There’s a lot on the menu for Shane in 2025!”
Geraldine Soto, Head of Acquisitions, Pre-buys & Co-productions Kids Content for Canal+ added: “Shane the Chef is a fun cooking adventure that brings the comedy of father-daughter dynamics to life. Shane’s everyday challenges to create original recipes whilst making the audience discover new things like cooking with local and fresh ingredients, delivers with laughs and heart in equal measure. We’re excited to add Shane the Chef to the Canal+ line up this February and we can’t wait to introduce the series to our young cook subscribers.”
In Shane the Chef, every day is a recipe for adventure with the series aiming to enthuse young children with a knowledge of food, healthy eating and a love of cooking.
Shane the Chef was created by Andrew Wildman and Simon Jowett. It is entirely produced in the UK by Hoho Entertainment and animated by Cloth Cat Animation in Cardiff with the support of the Creative Europe Programme – MEDIA of the European Union.
