Australian telco Telstra has snapped up animal- and wildlife-dedicated interactive preschool channel ZooMoo for its streaming media player Telstra TV.

The ZooMoo Networks-owned channel will be available for free, and offers more than 500 hours of original programming across 1,500 self-contained shows that feature puppet animal hosts, as well as wildlife footage and animation.

ZooMoo is directly connected to the free ZooMoo app for iOS and Android devices, which lets users bring animals that they have collected through TV-screen encounters to life on their mobile devices in games, music, puzzles and other activities.

Launched in 2015 in partnership with US set-top-box platform Roku, Telstra TV provides access to Netflix and local Australian SVOD services Stan and Presto. It also includes five free-to-air TV catch-up apps and movie rentals through BigPond Movies.

The deal follows a recent sale of the ZooMoo TV series to Australia’s free-to-air Seven Network. ZooMoo is currently available in the US, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, the Maldives and New Zealand.