In moves that send many of its properties and third-party titles across platforms, The Jim Henson Company has launched online channel Jim Henson Family TV on Hulu Kids, and its HIP banner has secured new international broadcasting deals for the hit long-form Annoying Orange series and Sixteen South Television’s preschool show Driftwood Bay.
A total of Henson series, including Fraggle Rock (four seasons, 96 eps), preschool series Mopatop’s Shop (season one, 32 episodes) and the Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (seasons one and two), are now available via ad-free Hulu Plus in the US. In addition, five rolling, consecutive episodes of each show will be offered on Hulu.com.
Other Henson titles heading to Hulu Kids include Fraggle Rock: Animated (season one), Jim Henson’s Play-Along-Video (one episode), Jim Henson’s Animal Show with Stinky and Jake (season one), The Hoobs (season one), Mother Goose Story (season one), Secret Life of Toys (season one) and Construction Site (seasons one and two).
Henson inked the Hulu deal in partnership with media distributor Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment.
Meanwhile, Henson’s new deals through HIP see it sell broadcasting rights for its first third-party title, Annoying Orange, to Teletoon (Canada), Cartoon Network (Latin America), Nelonen (Finland), NOGA (Israel) and to anime channel CJ E&M and Tooniverse (South Korea).
It also signed an SVOD deal with Tune Box (South East Asia) and inked a DVD distribution deal with Japan’s Pony Canyon for the series.
For mixed-media series Driftwood Bay, European broadcasters including MTV and YLE (Finland), NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden) and HOP! (Israel) have now signed on.