AN EASTLEIGH-based company has clinched three major new TV deals in Cannes which could be worth more than £3m over two years.

Gullane Entertainment clinched deals involving Thomas & Friends and the educational Guinness World Records, and they came to fruition at a television trade show in the south of France.

William Harris, chief executive of Gullane, said: "The deals demonstrate the strength of our distribution activity and the popularity of our brands.

"We are pleased to be broadening our relationship with Nickelodeon. We have seen a significant increase in our UK merchandising revenues over the past three years while Thomas & Friends has been broadcast on Nickelodeon."

Under one deal Nickelodeon UK has been licensed the rights to broadcast the existing 130 Thomas & Friends episodes and the 78 new episodes, currently in production, until December 31, 2008.

Nickelodeon will show the series on its pre-school channel Nick Jr.

Under a separate deal Discovery Latin America, a 24-hour channel broadcasting in Spanish and Portuguese to 12 million subscribers, has been licensed the rights to broadcast the existing Thomas & Friends episodes and the first 26 of the new episodes until June 30, 2005, which it will use as its flagship pre-school programme from July 2002. This TV platform establishes a base for the start of a licensing campaign for Thomas & Friends in South America.

These are the first broadcast deals concluded for the new Thomas & Friends TV episodes, due in September this year.