PIO ROCKS! HITS THE STAGE AT MIPJUNIOR and MIPCOM

Movie & Television

Rai Com, the commercial arm of pubcaster Rai, along with leading European children’s entertainment company Planeta Junior, animation studios DQ Entertainment and Gruppo Alcuni presented Pio Rocks! – The Series, a 3D CGI comedy series following the school adventures of Youtube star Pulcino Pio, to an industry audience at a special event during this year’s MIPJUNIOR.

A planned total of 52 episodes each lasting 11 minutes will combine comedy with plenty of adventure. Pio Rocks! – The Series is aimed at 5-8 year-old digital natives and is based on internet phenomenon Pulcino Pio. Pio’s YouTube channel has a huge fan base with over 1.9 million subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/pulcinopiotv) and cumulatively more than 1.5 billion views. Production of the series will start in January 2017 and the first 26 episodes are scheduled for delivery in April 2018.

Pio Rocks! – The Series is the first animation coproduction led by Rai Com. It combines creativity and innovation with an international commercial approach. Written by a team of writers headed by French-born and LA based Romain Van Liemt, the series characters are created by Pedro Bascon, responsible for several international TV and publishing projects.

Pio Rocks! – The Series follows the adventures of Pio at Highnote High, a school like every other school, except every class is about… music! The series revolves around Pio’s life at school – with plenty of challenges, betrayals, friendships forged forever and ex-friends you swear you’ll never speak to again… Pio Rocks! – The Series is a comedy about friendship, growing up, achieving goals and acceptance. Really it’s about being a kid at school!

RaiCom is handling worldwide sales, except Iberia, France, Greece, CEE and Turkey, which are being handled by Planeta Junior. Both companies will jointly handle the UK and Latin America. Pio Rocks! – The Series is produced by Rai Com, DQ Entertainment, Gruppo Alcuni and Planeta Junior.

Increasingly, Rai Com is co-developing and co-producing content for direct distribution. This has already led to national distribution agreements with major animation outlets (including Disney and DeA Kids).