A Dublin production company has secured a major broadcasting contract to produce a new €5 million BBC animation series.

Jam Media will produce Badly Drawn Roy, a series which will feature a combination of live action and animation aimed at the pre-teen market.

Principal photography work for the series began last week and it will debut on BBC next March.

John Rice, managing director of Jam Media, said the series would air on RTE in early 2010, with additional deals with broadcasters worldwide also in the pipeline.

"The BBC has the UK broadcasting rights, but we will be at the Cartoon Forum in Germany later this month talking to other broadcasters internationally.

"Our other series Picme and Funky Fables are both currently performing extremely well globally and we would certainly expect that Badly Drawn Roy will achieve similar success," he said.

"This is our most ambitious project so far. We're looking at a 12-week live action shoot and 30 weeks in animation production," added Mr Rice.