BBC Studios Kids & Family secure international sales for Hey Duggee, Bluey and Popularity Papers
Skwigly
BBC Studios Kids & Family has announced a raft of international sales for leading titles Popularity Papers, Hey Duggee and the global TV sensation, Bluey.
Multiple BAFTA and International Emmy® award-winning pre-school animation, Hey Duggee, continues to develop in the FAST space with episodes landing on BBC Kids channel on The Roku Channel, with additional VOD sales to The Roku Channel, Tubi, and Peacock.
Hey Duggee (Studio AKA, image courtesy of BBC)
New broadcasters on board for the hugely popular series, made by Studio AKA, include SBT Brazil and RUV Iceland. Deal renewals have also been inked with Knowledge Network Canada, DR Denmark, WDR Germany, Warner Bros. Discovery Italy, De Agostini Editore in Italy, including a licensing deal for Series 4, Prime Video Spain and SVT Sweden. It follows Hey Duggee (Series 1-3) making its free-to-air debut across the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, through children’s edutainment channel MBC3.
Hey Duggee follows the lovable club leader Duggee and his Squirrels as they embark on fun adventures. Since launching in 2014, the series has been streamed 1.36 billion times on BBC iPlayer in the UK and has amassed over 3 billion lifetime views on its official YouTube channel.
ABC Australia, Nickelodeon UK/Italy and Hulu in the U.S. has licensed live-action comedy, Popularity Papers, already a hit in Canada where it debuted as *the #1 show of the day for kids 2-11 across all of kids’ specialty TV. The series follows two best friends at middle school as they set out to crack the ‘popularity’ code by conducting a variety of hilarious social experiments, leading them to find out more about being their authentic selves.
Based on the best-selling books by Amy Ignatow and made by Aircraft Pictures and WexWorks Media in association with BBC Studios Kids & Family, the series debuted in April last year on YTV and streaming platform STACKTV in Canada.
Bluey (Ludo Studio, image courtesy of BBC)
The much-loved Emmy® and BAFTA award-winning animated series Bluey continues to expand its global footprint. The global TV sensation will be available to watch in MENA on free-to-air platform, SpaceToon TV. Bluey Season 3 has also had a raft of sales with deals inked with DR Denmark, Rai Yoyo in Italy, DeAJunior Italy and Public Limited and LaTVian Television Latvia, with sales of Season 1 to YLE, Finland, and De Agostini Editore in Italy.
The series follows Bluey, a loveable, inexhaustible, Blue Heeler dog, who lives with her Mum, Dad and her little sister, Bingo. Bluey uses her limitless energy to play games that unfold in unpredictable and hilarious ways, bringing her family and the whole neighbourhood into her world of fun.
Jointly commissioned by ABC Children’s and BBC Studios Kids & Family, Bluey is produced by multi-Emmy award-winning Ludo Studio in association with Screen Queensland and Screen Australia. Since launching in Australia in 2018, Bluey has become a global phenomenon, having gained millions of fans around the world and lauded for its heartfelt and funny portrayal of family life and celebration of play. It was the **second most streamed show last year in the U.S., doubling its viewing time from 2022 to 43.9 billion viewing minutes.
Cecilia Persson, Managing Director of BBC Studios Kids & Family, said:
We have ambitious plans to grow our global reach, so I’m delighted these incredible shows are continuing to expand and connect to audiences around the world thanks to our incredible sales teams.