Peppa Pig poised for Russian TV debut Peppa Pig is heading east. The popular cartoon character will soon be showing on Russian TV sets following a deal by Entertainment One, the cartoon's owner, with Karusel, a Russian TV channel. The latest deal continues the global success of the children's cartoon character which has already emerged as the leading pre-school broadcast property in international markets such as Australia, Spain and Italy. In results for the financial year 2012, which excluded much of the company's recent retail success in the US, Entertainment One reported turnover of £15m from its family assets, which includes Peppa Pig. The lion's share of these revenues came from merchandising opportunities such as toys and DVDs, said the producer and distributor of film and TV content. In 2011, the snorting piglet was launched in the US by a prime time 6pm slot with TV channel Nick Junior. The high-profile slot helped to propel merchandising opportunities: sales of Peppa toys at Toys R Us in the US beat forecasts by 25 per cent over Christmas. In the UK, Peppa Pig has become the leading licensed pre-school figure, in advance of brands such as Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder, delivering estimated annual retail sales between £150m and £200m. Giles Willits, chief financial officer of Entertainment One, said the company was considering rolling out Peppa merchandising in the Nordics and Canada this year. He said Russia was "one of the big emerging markets where Peppa has the opportunity to make it big." "If it does make it big, it could be very lucrative," he said, adding that the company was also investigating broadcast opportunities in China. Peppa will be dubbed for the Russian market complete with local language snorts. Mr Willits said that Peppa Pig was "little more than a rounding in the numbers" when it acquired the children's cartoon character following agreement in 2007 to purchase Contender, the independent distributor of TV shows and films on DVD. He said Peppa Pig had since grown to account for between 6 and 7 per cent of Entertainment One's total profits. In January, Entertainment One received approval from Canadian regulators for its acquisition of Alliance Films, a Canadian film distributor. The deal gives it access to Alliance's back catalogue of films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and film versions of Stieg Larsson's novels. Darren Throop, Entertainment One's chief executive, has hinted at further acquisitions, saying that the company had "good, solid appetite" for more deals. Entertainment One's content rights include more than 35,000 film and television titles, 2,700 hours of television programming and 45,000 music tracks.