Key franchises including Ben 10 and The Powerpuff Girls performing well across Europe.
Cartoon Network has hailed a raft of strong free to air performances from its key franchises across Europe.
The company is continuing to secure new broadcast and licensing partners across the region, with vp of Cartoon Network Enterprises Johanne Broadfield saying new partnerships are set to be revealed in coming months.
The new series of The Powerpuff Girls, which made its global return to Cartoon Network in April 2016, has since reached millions of new viewers and beaten average audience figures on a number of its new free-to-air homes.
This includes CITV (and ITV simulcast) in the UK, where it became the number one commercial show for girls 4-9 when it launched in Q4 2016 and has since reached over two million viewers and 13% of Kids 4-9. On Gulli in France, it won a 19% audience share, an increase on the channel’s average audience share of 17.1%, while on PULS 2 in Poland it is performing above channel average among Kids (+13%) and Younger Kids (+38%), and ranking the number two show among Young Girls in its launch month.
Added to this, the series also enjoyed a strong six-week launch on Turner and Mediaset’s joint venture free-to-air channel Boing in Italy, ranking number three with Kids and number two with Girls.
Meanwhile, the new series of Ben 10 has also been delivering strong audience figures across the region.
On CITV (and ITV simulcast) it has reached 1.2m viewers and 9% of Boys 4-9, achieved an 18.7% audience share on Gulli and ranked the number two Kids broadcast on Boing in Italy on its premiere day.
Since it began rolling out on Cartoon Network across EMEA in October 2016, Ben 10 has reached 50% of Boys in South Africa, Romania, Spain and Portugal, and more than 1 in 3 Boys in Hungary, Poland and Sweden.
Johanne Broadfield, vp at Cartoon Network Enterprises, commented: “The early success of PPG and Ben 10 is a great indication of engagement – kids are choosing to tune in and watch our shows despite all the other great content out there.
“The product launches for lined up for this autumn and 2018 will offer kids new ways to interact with the brands they love, and we look forward to revealing more details of these, as well as new licensing partnerships in the coming months.”
Cartoon Network’s longer-running franchises, The Amazing World of Gumball and Adventure Time continue to achieve in free to air, too.
Among other successes, Q1 2017 saw Gumball deliver +56% on Danish FTA channel DR Ultra’s average Kid audience, ranking the channel’s number one show. Meanwhile, Adventure Time outperformed the channel average by +14% among Young Kids.
Both shows have also been key contributors on Gulli, with Gumball ranking number four among Kids 4-14 and Adventure Time delivering a 19% audience share.
Cartoon Network recently announced that it had greenlit a second season of Ben 10, as well as a live action game show, entitled Ben 10 Challenge.
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