Interview of Franck Cymes, France Télévisions Distribution's Director of Licensing and Events

Franck Cymes worked for 2 year as product managers for PSG Omnisport before being the commercial manager of TF1 Licences during 5 years. For the past 10 years he has been France Télévisions Distribution's Director of Licensing and Events.

Interviewed by Kazachok, Franck Cymes tells us what the key properties currently are in France Télévisions Distribution’s portfolio?

F. C.: We have well-established properties for every target with an emphasis on classics.

For preschool Noddy remains our leading brand, followed by Mr. Men that was a huge success when it was introduced. We also have Thomas the tank engine that will be arriving in France.

Evidently we are closely involved in developing Roary the racing car with French Master Toy Bandai and we have 2 important novelties: WordWorld that will arrive on France 5 for the spring of 2010… and Lulu Zipadoo's big début on France 5 scheduled for the end of 2010.

For girls Winx Club remains in the news with Season 4 arriving on France 3 and we are handling Rainbow's new animation series called Pop Pixie.

With the World Football Cup taking place in 2010 the Foot2Rue property will be our main priority for little boys with the arrival of Nicolas Anelka in the series and the licensed products coming out.

For older children we have high expectations for The Whizz Report and the new series Podcats that is a mix of music and multimedia, notwithstanding Mr. Men and Little Miss that is a fashion version of Mr. Men for young adults.

The Thalassa license is continuing to enjoy great success with seniors; we just signed new deals to develop watches, binoculars, umbrellas, etc.

Finally for the first time we are going to manage a brand that doesn't belong to the France Télévisions group: Vélib’ (Note of the translator: the name of the rental bikes available in Paris and suburbs).