Nickelodeon Digital Studios
The digital content arm of the kidsnet has teamed up with WowWee to launch original animated content based on the Canadian toyco’s My Squishy Little Dumplings brand. Nickelodeon is producing a collection of videos featuring WowWee’s plush figures as they form a K-pop style band called The Squish. The first music video “Can You Resist the Squish?!” (pictured) launched on the Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. YouTube channels yesterday. Nickelodeon is also rolling out the song to Apple Music, Spotify and iTunes.
The kidsnet will release behind-the-scenes style shorts revolving around the characters when they’re not performing, as well as additional music videos, throughout the year. The companies have not disclosed the amount of content being made under the deal.
WowWee’s My Squishy Little brand launched in the UK this spring and in the US this month.
Milkshake!
UK’s Channel 5’s preschool programming block picked up season one of Studio Metrafilms and CTC Media’s 2D-animated series Kid-E-Cats. The 52 x five-minute first season of the preschool-skewing show tracks three kittens who learn different lessons as they get into comedic situations, and began airing on the channel earlier this summer.
Paris-based distributor APC Kids secured the deal for the show, which first premiered on Russia’s CTC’s linear channel in 2015, and now airs on Nick Jr. in more than 170 territories and streams worldwide on Netflix.
Sinking Ship Entertainment
The Toronto distributor has inked new VOD deals for five shows in its catalogue. The Roku Channel (US and UK) has picked up Sinking Ship’s animated preschool series Chirp (52 x 11 minutes), all-ages live-action series Giver (23 x 22 minutes) and Toronto-based Lopii Productions’ factual series My Home, My Life (21 x seven minutes) to launch this fall. Meanwhile, SVOD Oznoz (US) has also picked up Chirp to launch in the fall.
Chirp stars three birds who go on fun adventures and learn new things. Six to nine-skewing My Home, My Life introduces kids to different families who share their diverse cultures and traditions. Giver, meanwhile, follows kids who work together to build and improve local playgrounds over a few days.
Sinking Ship has also inked a deal with iTunes in the US and UK for 13 x 22-minute episodes of Dino Dana and 40 x 22-minute Odd Squad episodes. Dino Dana, aimed at kids five to nine, tracks a young girl who goes on adventures with dinosaurs, while Odd Squad is a four to eight-skewing live-action comedy starring kid agents who solve unusual problems with math and science.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises
The kids entertainment company has inked a licensing deal to add Dr. Seuss’ characters and stories to audio company Tonies‘ Toniebox system. Under the deal, the companies will create figurines based on the Dr. Seuss brands, which when placed on the Toniebox activate stories and audio content.
A Cat in the Hat figurine will kick off the roll out in early 2022. The companies will also create audio versions of Dr. Seuss’ stories, including The Cat in the Hat and There’s a Wocket in My Pocket. The new partnership is part of Dr. Seuss Enterprises efforts to expand into audio content.
Sesame Workshop
The nonprofit has signed a deal with joint venture Creative Artists Agency-Global Brands Management Group to be Sesame Street’s licensing agent in South Korea and Southeast Asia. As part of the deal, the licensing company will expand Sesame Street into new categories, including educational and licensing products.
Sesame Street has aired in South Korea since the ’80s, and is available on a number of platforms in the region, including HBO Asia. Sesame has signed a handful of new and renewed international licensing agents for the series recently, including Medialink Group for Mainland China, Studio 100 for German-speaking territories and Sony Creative Products in Japan.