9 Story Distribution has sold preschool series Lu & the Bally Bunch to CBeebies, which plans to air it in the UK next year. 

Brown Bag Films—the studio owned by Canada’s 9 Story Media—produces this 75 x seven-minute toon, which Warner Bros. Discovery and CBC Kids greenlit in 2021. Billed as a music-driven dramedy, Lu & the Bally Bunch centers on a young ladybug and her new friends in the village of Ballybug, where they navigate the ups and downs of preschool life. Brown Bag Films director Nicky Phelan (The Octonauts) created the series, which is inspired by his mother’s experiences running a daycare in their family home.

Cartoonito (UK & LatAm), CBC Kids (Canada) and TVNZ+ (New Zealand) premiered Lu & the Bally Bunch in April, and Cartoonito US is set to air the series in the next few months. 

The Dublin-based sales arm of 9 Story handles worldwide distribution for the show, which has already sparked a lot of interest from international buyers such as ABC Australia, which premiered it in June. SVT (Sweden), YLE (Finland), RTÉ (Ireland) and PCCW (Hong Kong) have also acquired Lu & the Bally Bunch for their regions, although airdates have not been set yet. 

CBeebies has been steadily ordering and acquiring more preschool content this year. Earlier this month, the channel co-commissioned a space/science-focused series called Big Lizard from Beakus in the UK and Parisian prodcos Watch Next Media and Je Suis Bien Content. And in May, it acquired two non-dialogue slapstick comedies from French studio HARI to meet a demand for family-friendly, humor-driven programming.