BBC Studios’ hit preschool brand expands into Maldives following CBeebies launch.
Hit preschool brand Hey Duggee is continuing to expand its global footprint, with the CBeebies channel launching on two platforms in the Maldives.
Dhiraagu TV – which offers TV content via its fixed broadband connection for homes and using mobile network for its customers – launched the channel earlier this month, while Medianet – the largest pay TV broadcaster in the Maldives – will follow on September 1.
Hey Duggee is among the shows that viewers in the country will now be able to access, adding further to the brand’s global footprint in over 150 territories.
This includes China, where the series has accumulated over 1.8 billion combined video views on streaming platforms Tencent, iQiyi, and Youku since launching on these sites in 2017.
Hey Duggee’s growing audience globally is instrumental in enabling the brand to continue making in-roads internationally and in the UK, BBC Studios belives.
For instance, Hey Duggee We Love Animals app won a children’s BAFTA in November 2017 and combined global downloads for all Hey Duggee apps – which are made in partnership with Scary Beasties – currently available amount to over 2 million, with further new Hey Duggee apps anticipated to launch in the coming months.
In the UK, The Kick song phenomenon saw fans online calling for the song to be the unofficial World Cup anthem. The track was subsequently released commercially and attracted widespread national broadcast coverage, including slots on BBC Breakfast, BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1, to name a few.
UK retail interest in the brand also continues to grow. The popularity of The Kick Song’s predecessor, The Stick Song, lead to a range of The Stick t-shirts being stocked exclusively at Sainsbury’s. The Hey Duggee Sticky Stick Sticker Book, published by Penguin, also launched recently and is available at Morrisons and Amazon.
Other key UK licensees for the series include Dreamtex, Aykroyd Blues, Immediate Media for magazines and Golden Bear for plush toys.
Elsewhere across the globe, Chicco is master toy for Italy, Jazwares is master toy for North America, while Jasnor is the master toy distributor for Australia.
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