V-Me nabs 'Dance Academy,' 'Train'

MADRID -- Barcelona-based Imira Ent., one of Spain's pre-eminent youth programming specialists, has licensed the first season of Emmy Award nommed "Dance Academy" to free-to-air U.S. Hispanic channel V-Me. Produced by Melbourne's Werner Film Productions, Australia's ABC and German pubcaster ZDF, the teen-skewed TV drama follows a dance student as she prepares for a ballet competition. BBC Latin America has acquired the first two seasons of children's CGI-animated show "Driver Dan's Story Train," produced by U.K.'s 3Line Media and Abu Dhabi's Twofour54, and a hit on Blighty's CBeebies. Sales vindicate Imira's move from distributing its own toon productions into both third-party pick up sales and live-action entertainment. Further deals on a cosmopolitan range of animated shows underscore the current appetite for kids' animation in Latin America, driven by new channel launches and healthy markets. Canal Futura and Elo Audiovisual in Brazil -- a booming kids' fare market -- have tied down rights respectively to "Monk" and "Corneil & Bernie," both dog comedies sourced from France's Millimages. Playing off the explosion in Argentine PBS services, Imira has licensed "Corneil & Bernie" and "Wicked Science" to pubcaster Canal 7 and a trio -- "Stella and the Star of the Orient," "Fun With Claude" and "Barbazan" -- to culture service Canal Encuentro, launched in 2007. According to sales manager Begona Esteban, Imira is keen to represent third-party shows in Europe and tie down Latin American partners for Imira productions. Latin America used to look to Spain for co-production coin. Times are changing. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com