Acamar celebrates BING’s debut chart success on iTunes and remarkable performance on BBC iPlayer
Skwigly
BING, the BAFTA-nominated hit series produced by independent studio Acamar Films and Dublin-based partners Brown Bag Films, has topped the animation charts with its first selection of episodes on the UK’s iTunes store. This extraordinary success mirrors BING’s remarkable 22.6 million views since launch on the BBC’s iPlayer in June last year and highlights the series’ unique appeal and resonance with an ever-growing audience of both pre-school children and the grown ups in their lives.
Since its launch last summer, BING has had an incredible year, with a Writer’s Guild Award, a BAFTA nomination for best Pre-School Series, top ratings on both CBeebies in the UK and on ABC in Australia and a strengthening group of prestigious commercial partners as well as a Global Distribution partnership with Aardman. 2015 will see the show launching to new audiences across the globe with 30 new territories now under negotiation.
In separate news, Acamar has today announced a new publishing relationship with Immediate Media which will see BING feature in the official CBeebies magazine from next month.
Bethan Garton, Acamar’s Head of Licensing comments:
“It is fantastic to see how popular BING has become with preschool children and their families. He’s already a treasured part of their daily routines. Our iTunes Chart success and extraordinary BBC iPlayer download numbers are testament to just how much of a hit he has become.”
BING is also proving to be a hit in the magazine publishing arena. Egmont, one of Europe’s leading publishers, now produces a dedicated BING magazine which launched last December in the UK. The magazine is Egmont’s best-performing magazine of the Play and Learn series and a second magazine is being published in May. BING will also be included in Egmont’s Play and Learn Vehicles issue.
Other key partners already committed to BING include: Fisher-Price, Harper Collins and Ravensburger with The Licensing Company on board as Acamar’s licensing agent for BING.
Celebrating the noisy, joyful, messy reality of everyday life when you’re a pre-schooler, BING stories are small but they are full of drama; micro-dramas depicting everyday events that all young children and the grown-ups in their lives will recognise. Just when Bing thinks he’s got the hang of life, it can swing right back and knock him over. But it’s okay – as Bing’s companion and carer Flop says: “Never mind Bing, it’s no big thing!”
BING has been adapted from the insightful books by award-winning author and illustrator Ted Dewan. The series has been meticulously developed by a hand-picked team at Acamar in partnership with leading Irish animation studio Brown Bag Films.