Boat Rocker Announces Raft of New Deals For 'Danger Mouse', 'Count Duckula' and 'Rainbow'

Boat Rocker, an independent, integrated global entertainment company, has announced new deals for its beloved classic brands Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and Rainbow. Leveraging the enduring demand for nostalgia brands, Boat Rocker continues to fuel the growth of its classic portfolio by expanding its consumer offering to excite and attract both existing and new fans.

In a four-year, multi-territory deal with renowned game development studio Art of Play, an all-new Danger Mouse action game is set to captivate fans both old and new. Expected to launch in 2026 across platforms including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox, the game will be available in both digital and physical formats, immersing players in the thrilling world of the iconic secret agent. The deal spans the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The Art of Play deal was licensed with the support of the Layer marketplace.

Character-Wear has joined forces with Boat Rocker in a two-year partnership spanning the UK and Ireland for a collection of apparel and accessories for adults. Delivering high-quality Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, and Rainbow t-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps and beanies, the line will be available at Character-Wear’s ‘TV & Movie’ stores, as well as select specialty and online retailers.

“Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and Rainbow are much-loved, instantly recognisable brands whose popularity never wanes,” said Jon Rutherford, President, Global Rights, Franchise, and Content Strategy, Boat Rocker Studios. “We’re delighted to team up with Art of Play and Character-Wear, both leaders in their fields, to offer fans these exciting new products to engage them further with these iconic classics.”

Ash Nicholls, Founder and Director Art of Play, said: “Crikey! As huge fans of the world’s greatest secret agent, we were thrilled to undertake this mission to create a new Danger Mouse game. We aim to capture the daredevil exploits, villainous villainy and hilarious hilarity of the show to provide a dazzling, immersive experience for players.”

Phil King, General Manager, Character-Wear, said: “We are delighted to work with Boat Rocker on a striking new line of apparel and accessories for these iconic brands. The ever-popular characters are strong and distinctive, with unique and colourful appearances that lend themselves perfectly to eye-catching and stylish designs.” 

Originally produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television, Danger Mouse ran on ITV from 1981 to 1992. The world’s greatest secret agent is set to celebrate his 45th anniversary in 2026. Licensed to thrill a 21st-century audience, the iconic animation blasted back to TV screens with a gadget-packed, gag-laden makeover on CBBC in September 2015.  An instant ratings and critical success, it is now in its third series. One of Danger Mouse’s original and most popular villains, Count Duckula enjoyed a successful TV spin-off of his own.

Cult TV show Rainbow, created by Pamela Lonsdale, ran on ITV five times a week from 1972-92 with 1071 episodes in total. Intended to help young children develop their language and numeracy skills, Rainbow revolved around the day-to-day household arrangements of George, Bungle and Zippy and their human sidekicks. Fondly remembered for its catchy theme tune, lovable characters and seventies fashions, it continues to flourish today in a vast range of products adorned with the images of the popular trio.

Paramount+ UK & Ireland is HERE! Stream a Mountain of Entertainment, including your Nickelodeon favourites! Try it FREE at ParamountPlus.com!

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More Nick: Nickelodeon USA and Milkshake! UK Partner For New Preschool Series 'Tim Rex in Space'!

Originally published: December 02, 2024.

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ITV to Close CITV Channel

A true end of an era is upon us: ITV is closing it's CITV linear TV channel, thus ending the iconic Children's ITV brand, which has given us such iconic shows as Thomas the Tank Engine, Sooty, How 2, Tugs, Press Gang, Spatz, Mike & Angelo, Knightmare, Rainbow, Fun House, Finders Keepers (UK), Art Attack, Rosie & Jim, Wizadora, ZZZap! and so many more classics, as well as weekend blocks such as Ghost Train, Wacaday, Motormouth and SMTV Live, and has aired quite a bit of Nickelodeon programming over the years, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Hey Arnold!, Rugrats and You Can't Do That on Television,

In a major blow to kids TV in the U.K., ITV will move children's programming to ITVX Kids, a new dedicated destination for kids on ITV's ITVX streaming service, set to launch in July 2023. Following the launch of ITVX Kids, ITV will close the CITV channel during Autumn 2023.

ITV to supercharge kids offering on ITVX

ITVX Kids to launch in Summer 2023

ITV today announces the launch of a new dedicated destination for kids on ITVX - ITVX Kids - with more content than ever before, across a range of titles appealing to both school age and pre-school age children.

Launching in July 2023, and rolling out across the school summer holiday period, the new consolidated children’s offering will also see ITV taking its approach to 6-12s content, streaming-only, from early Autumn 2023.

ITVX Kids is part of ITV’s continuing drive to supercharge its presence in streaming, delivering content to audiences however they want to watch it. BARB viewing data demonstrates that while the average amount of broadcast TV minutes of kids TV channels watched by 4-15 year olds per week has declined by -62% since 2019, unmatched* viewing has risen by +30% in the same period, demonstrating the streaming first trend in kids viewing.

The Kids ITVX homepage, accessed within a child-safe ITVX Kids profile, will bring together over 100 brilliant titles in a dedicated homepage, with over 1000 hours of programming to choose from, a near doubling of the current offer, with curated rails and collections.

The curated collections will feature a wide range of titles, including brand new programmes dropping monthly on the service, from July 2023. This new content will span a wide-range of genres and subjects including comedy, gameshows, live action, animation and sport and sourced from a broad spectrum of distributors from small Independents as well as regional UK suppliers.

Craig Morris, Managing Editor of ITVX said:

“We’re really excited to launch this dedicated destination for kids on ITVX, which will be home to a wealth of content including new series, recognisable brands and existing favourites for a range of ages, all in one child-safe area, with editorial curation to guide viewing. The wealth of content will be available to stream for free, with the option for parents to choose ad free viewing, through a subscription to ITVX Premium.”

The exciting range of new shows will complement existing favourites, including Lloyd of the Flies, Lily’s Driftwood Bay, Claude, Mumfie, Mystery Lane and The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, which will also be available on ITVX Kids.

Brand new episodes of The Rubbish World of Dave Spud are commissioned for broadcast in 2024 and they will be premiered on ITVX.  

ITVX Kids will also have some much-loved British brands, including the animated series of Mr Bean, and for younger pre-school children, TeleTubbies Let's Go, Sooty and Bob The Builder amongst other titles.

Commissions that ITV was able to greenlight, thanks to funding from the BFI Young Audiences Content Fund which ran until 2022, will also appear on ITVX Kids. These include sustainable arts and craft series Makeaway Takeaway, HOW, highlighting amazing facts, science and historical stories in a fun, fast paced, hands on format, The Sound Collector an animated series narrated by Keira Knightley, about a little boy who has a passion for sound despite being hard of hearing and Happy The Hoglet - which helps pre-schoolers navigate those big emotional rollercoasters that comes with being young.

Accessibility for all children who want to enjoy content is a big priority for ITVX. The ambition is for 100% of content to be subtitled on ITVX Kids, with around 20% of the content on ITVX Kids audio described, and the offering will also include British Sign Language original programming such as Mission Employable and Daremaster, produced by Signpost productions.

As a consequence of this new streaming approach, and responding to the changing ways children and their parents are increasingly accessing content, the CITV broadcast channel will close in early Autumn, once the new streaming destination for kids has been rolled out across platforms and devices, over the summer holidays.   However, ITV will maintain the LittleBe pre-school segment on ITVBe and will offer some children’s content in the early mornings on ITV2 from September with strong cross promotion to ITVX.

[end]

Notes to Editors:

*Unmatched viewing = TV set viewing that BARB cannot identify, including gaming, viewing of DVDs, unreferenced channels, SVOD/AVOD and video-sharing services etc. Please note that SVOD/AVOD and video-sharing services have been identifiable by BARB since 2022, but are still included in this definition of unmatched.

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More Nick: Nickelodeon's 'SpongeBob SquarePants' Universe Expands Again with Four New Movies!

Paramount+ UK & Ireland is HERE! Stream a Mountain of Entertainment, including your Nickelodeon favourites! Try it FREE at ParamountPlus.com!

Paramount+ is also available with Sky Cinema at no extra cost.

More Nick: Gareth Gates and Divina De Campo to Headline 'The SpongeBob Musical' Tour of the UK & Ireland!

H/T: TVKIDS, r/CasualUK; CITV logo via Logopedia.

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Nickelodeon At The Children’s Media Conference 2017 | #CMC17 | #CMC2017

The Children's Media Conference has announced the exciting news that Alison Bakunowich, General Manager, Nickelodeon UK & Ireland and Nina Hahn, Senior Vice President, International Production & Development, Nickelodeon will be participating in two sessions at CMC 2017!

The Children’s Media Conference is the only gathering in the UK for everyone involved in developing, producing and distributing content to kids – on all platforms. The conference welcomes delegates from film, TV, radio, interactive media, games, licensing, toys, book and magazine publishing, the arts and culture sector and educational media – with speakers from all those areas and beyond.

This year’s conference is being held between Tuesday 4th and Thursday 6th July 2017 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK.

L: Alison Bakunowich; R: Nina Hahn

Alison and Nina will both be participating in the "Meet the Commissioners: Channels" session, taking place on Wednesday 5th July 2017 between 11:00am-12:30pm in Showroom Cinema 4, which will delve into the minds behind the commissioning at Nickelodeon, Turner, BabyTV and Disney, and the "Speed Meetings – Commissioners: Channels" session, being held on the same day, Wednesday 5th July 2017, between 12:45pm-1:45pm at The Workstation (Mezzanine). During the "Speed Meetings – Commissioners: Channels" session, Alison and Nina will be available for five-minute one-to-one advice meetings. Attendees can book their slot at the Workstation Reception. There is no advance booking – it is on a first-come, first-serve basis, so don’t miss out.

Additionally, Nickelodeon UK and its sister brand, Channel 5's Milkshake, have been named as the Bag Sponsors in the Foundation Sponsors category of the event.

In addition to Alison and Nina, Nickelodeon International's Lynsey O’Callaghan, Charly Valentine and Alexi Wheeler will also be guests at CMC 2017's International Exchange. The International Exchange plays host to a wide range of broadcasters, co-producers, funders and investors from across the world keen to meet sellers of content and services.

Former Nickelodeon UK presenter and KOL host Rick Adams will also be attending two sessions at the Children's Media Conference 2017: As a speaker at "First Timers Reception (Free Drinks!)" on Tuesday 04 July 2017 between 5:00pm-6:00pm at Crucible Theatre; and as a Host/Moderator at "First Timers Lunch" on Thursday 06 July 2017 between 12:45pm-1:45pm at the HUBS Bar Phoenix.

Children's TV favourites Dick & Dom, and Zippy from Rainbow will also be attending CMC 2017.

A full list of CMC 2017 sessions can be found here.

Rainbow And Tsumanga Studios Announce Plans To Launch "Winx Club" Virtual World In Autumn 2013; Rainbow To Release First Winx App In Spring 2013

Licensing news website Licensing.biz is reporting in the following news article that Rainbow S.r.l., the company which owns the "Winx Club" media franchise, has announced a partnership with Scotland-based games developer and publisher Tsumanga Studios to design, develop and launch a brand new online game based on Rainbow's hit girls brand "Winx Club". The interactive online 'Magix' world will target girls aged seven to ten years old and will be free to play, with subscriptions for 'premium content and extended gameplay' available. Rainbow and Tsumanga plan to launch their "Winx Club" virtual world during Autumn/Fall 2013, and will initially be playable in English, Italian, Russian and French languages. Rainbow has also announced plans to release their first "Winx Club" app during Spring 2013:

Winx Club virtual world in the works

Tsumanga Studios working with Rainbow to design free-to-play online game.

An online virtual world based on Rainbow's hit girls brand Winx Club is in development.

Tsumanga Studios is working with brand owner Rainbow to produce the online game, which will be available on smartphones, tablets and PC/Mac web browsers.

The interactive online 'Magix' world will target girls aged seven to ten years old. It will be free to play, with subscriptions for 'premium content and extended gameplay' available.

The first Winx app is set to launch in spring 2013, before the full virtual world goes live in autumn 2013. It will initially be playable in English, Italian, Russian and French languages.

"The digital games represent a strategic new media for Winx Club, that will complete its well established multimedia platform of CP applications," said Iginio Straffi, Rainbow’s Chairman and CEO.

“We’re very excited to start this new collaboration with Tsumanga Studios. Winx has all the potential assets to become a digital game success.”

Graeme Harvey, founder and CEO of Tsumanga Studios, added: "We're very excited to be working with Rainbow on project with the popularity and potential of Winx Club."

Girls play more online games than boys. In the US market, over 50 per cent of the 9.3 million tween girls play online games. 60 per cent of girls under the age of 12 own a mobile phone.

The original animated Winx Club TV series - now in its fifth season with a total of 130 episodes available - has spawned branded products including feature films, DVDs, toys, clothing, books and video games.

Tags: rainbow, tsumanga studios, winx club

Rainbow Signs Pan-European "Winx Club" Building Blocks Deal With COBI

Licensing news website Licensing.biz is reporting in the following news article that Rainbow S.r.l., the company which owns the "Winx Club" media franchise, has announced the "Winx Club" news that they have agreed a pan-European licensing partnership with the Polish toy company COBI to release a line of "Winx Club" branded Building Blocks, which will hit toy shelves in autumn 2013:

Rainbow signs Winx Club Building Blocks deal

Cobi will produce a range of building sets based on the girls' property.

Winx Club brand owner Rainbow has agreed a licensing partnership with Cobi for a line of Winx Club Building Blocks.

The pan-European licence will allow Poland-based Cobi – one of the biggest manufacturer of construction blocks in Europe – to produce a series of building sets based on the girls' property.

Cobi has an international sales network covering over 60 countries, along with direct branch offices in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

A statement read: "The production of Cobi's blocks is European and guarantees the high standard ABS, and strong play value which they have succeeded in achieving with other brand partnerships like Jeep, Boeing and McLaren.

"Until now, Cobi's speciality was to create strong concepts and play value for boys, but the company's purpose with Winx Club adventures is to target the young female demographic.

"The magic and dynamism of the Winx world will provide the basis for a huge range of engaging collections, which Cobi aims to release from autumn 2013."
Cobi will initially create ten collections which vary in price and size.
The plan is to expand this in 2014 with a continuously updated style guide and concept that will tie in with the Winx Club TV show, which airs on Nickelodeon in the UK.

Tags: building blocks, cobi, construction toys, rainbow, winx club

Also, from ToyNews, a monthly trade magazine for the toy business:

Winx Club Building Blocks due autumn

Cobi will produce a range of building sets based on the girls' property.

A range of Winx Club Building Blocks will hit toy shelves in autumn 2013.

Poland-based Cobi – one of the biggest manufacturer of construction blocks in Europe – will produce the series of building sets.

It has signed a deal with Rainbow, owner of the girls' property and TV show Winx Club, which airs on Nickelodeon in the UK.

A statement read: "The production of Cobi's blocks is European and guarantees the high standard ABS, and strong play value which they have succeeded in achieving with other brand partnerships like Jeep, Boeing and McLaren.

"The magic and dynamism of the Winx world will provide the basis for a huge range of engaging collections, which Cobi aims to release from autumn 2013."

Read the full story over at Licensing.biz.

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Tags: building blocks, cobi, construction, rainbow, winx club

Rainbow Announces New Licensing Deals For "Winx Club"

From Licensing.biz:

BLE 2012: Rainbow strikes big deals

New licensing agents for Winx Club, PopPixie toys on the way and Huntik enjoys success.

Italian producer, distributor and licensor Rainbow has announced a slew of deals at Brand Licensing Europe 2012.

It has signed a host of new licensing agents for its leading brand Winx Club, extending its number of licensees further across Europe and through the Far East and Middle Eastern markets.

New licensees include: CPLG for Germany and Benelux; RBW for Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand; Tuesday (Bates Group) Indonesia; License2Brand in Greece and FWD Licensing in UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Oman, Saudi-Arabia, Tunisia and Morocco.

It has also signed a licensing partnership with US toy firm Jakks Pacific for toy rights to its girls' TV property PopPixie.

Dolls, figurines, dress sets and plush products will hit retail in spring 2014.

In addition, Huntik season two is now CITV's number one rated animated series and number six amongst all animation in free and pay TV.

Huntik is also fast becoming a leading toyline presence. This year it became the best-selling action figure and the number right best-selling toy across boys and girls in Portugal.

Huntik will begin by increasing its international presence in 2013 with the launch of an English-language version Facebook page and also an official Huntik Youtube channel.

Spring 2013 will see Rainbow roll out an extensive range of Huntik games across multiple platforms including console, PC, apps and online.

Tags: brand licensing europe 2012, rainbow, winx club