German family entertainment rights trader Igel Media and the French production studio Xilam have joined forces to acquire more than 200 animation episodes from the Gaumont Multimedia library.

The deal, which includes such internationally successful series as Sky Dancers, Dragon Flyz and Space Goofs (aka Home To Rent), includes all rights globally and gives Igel exclusive world distribution rights to the package. Gaumont has been commissioning the series since 1995 from broadcasters such as France's France 2, Germany's ProSieben Media, the UK's BBC, Channel 4, GMTV and Fox UK, Italy's Mediaset and Spain's Antena 3.

Igel began trading on Hamburg's start-up market last July and has concentrated on the acquisition, co-financing, co-production and distribution of series in the kids and family entertainment genres as well as documentaries for the national and international TV markets.