After a milestone year of international expansion, strategic partnerships, and record digital growth, Animotion Media Group has entered 2026 with strong momentum, ready to continue the global success of its flagship brand The Fixies, and further expand its IPs across multiple initiatives.
Following a very active 2025, which was marked by major milestones including strategic international partnerships, new offices in key territories, and a major digital expansion; Animotion Media Group has started 2026 with the same drive and its eyes set on further growth.
During this first quarter of the year, the group has announced multiple deals and sales as demand continues for its most successful brands, and has put more focus on the music side, signing partnerships and launching albums in new languages.
In the following interview with ttvnews, Julia Nikolaeva, general manager of Animotion Media Group, talks about what makes the group’s brands so popular around the world; which are the current stars of its content catalog; and its strong focus for 2026 to expand its IPs across content, music, licensing, and new audience experiences.
Could you share a recap of 2025 for Animotion Media Group in terms of growth and business, and how you’ve now started 2026?
2025 was a landmark year for us, starting with our strategic partnership with Emirati investment company Madbridge and the launch of Animotion MENA, which gave a major boost to our regional growth ambitions. We also expanded our content footprint through a partnership with Abu Dhabi Media, covering titles such as The Fixies, Dinocity, Tina & Tony, BabyRiki, and Detective Finnick.
At the same time, we saw strong digital momentum, surpassing 2 billion views on YouTube last year alone, launching six new YouTube channels, and growing our English, Arabic, and Chinese social media audiences to a combined half a million followers. The Finnick franchise also continued its international rollout, including the theatrical expansion of Finnick 2 and the premiere of the Detective Finnick series in Greece and across MENA.
We started 2026 on a very musical note. We have already announced new music deals, including partnerships with Korean animation studio Sunwoo & Company and the world’s most popular kidfluencers Vlad & Niki, and we launched The Fixies’ first Arabic album, with a broader rollout of Arabic-language tracks planned throughout the year.
More broadly, we are entering the year with a strong focus on expanding our IPs across content, music, licensing, and new audience experiences.
One of Animotion’s most popular brands, The Fixies, continues to grow worldwide, most recently reaching a major milestone on YouTube with its English-language channel. What do you think makes this brand so popular around the world and what expectations do you have for its ongoing growth?
The Fixies works globally because it combines entertainment and education in a way that feels natural, funny, and genuinely useful for kids. The series takes everyday technology and explains it through relatable stories, humor, and memorable characters, which gives it universal appeal across cultures. Parents also appreciate the brand because it encourages curiosity, problem-solving, and interest in how the world works.
What is especially exciting now is that The Fixies is growing far beyond the original animated series. We are expanding into new forms of content, including an Arabic version of Fixilab, our live-action TV show inspired by The Fixies universe. We are also developing new offline experiences around the brand, so this year will bring more news on that front as well. We see a lot of room for continued growth across digital, broadcast, music, licensing, and offline activations.
Which other titles are you currently showcasing at tradeshows and international markets?
Alongside The Fixies, we are actively presenting the Finnick franchise, including the feature films and the Detective Finnick series, which is based on the movie universe and helps extend the brand into a longer-form mystery-adventure format. We are also showcasing Shooting Stars, which is currently in an early stage of production, and we are actively looking for partners for the project.
Another title we are highlighting is The Question Club, which has a very distinctive interactive concept: each episode begins with a real question from a child, which is then explored and answered through animation. More broadly, our market slate reflects our interest in projects that combine strong storytelling with educational, interactive, and multi-platform potential.
What’s your current outlook on the kids’ content industry? How have new technologies, both in production and video consumption, changed the business?
The kids’ content industry is becoming increasingly multi-platform, interactive, and experience-driven. Today, success is no longer defined only by a TV series itself, but by how a brand can live across streaming, YouTube, music, games, live experiences, and consumer products. Young audiences are discovering and engaging with content in much more fragmented, but also much more dynamic ways.
Technology is a big part of that shift. AI and other new tools are already influencing both production and marketing. For example, we are using AI-supported workflows in areas such as social media content creation, and we are also exploring AI-driven dubbing solutions to help content travel faster and more efficiently across languages. Used thoughtfully, these technologies can open up exciting opportunities, especially for kids’ brands with global ambitions.
What do you think will be the main trends in kids’ content for the year ahead?
We see several strong trends shaping the year ahead. One is definitely the rise of AI-driven content, not only as a production tool but also as something that can influence creative development from the earliest stages. In fact, we currently have a project in development that has been designed with AI in mind from the very beginning.
Another important trend is the growing appetite for live-action formats for kids and family audiences. We are seeing increasing demand in the market for non-animated, personality-driven, and interactive formats, and this is something we are actively developing ourselves this year. At the same time, we expect continued growth in immersive experiences, educational entertainment, and franchise ecosystems that extend far beyond the screen.
