MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide has announced publishing and DVD partners for the children’s channel CBeebies’ show ‘Baby Jake’.
Children‘s publishers Egmont will develop books and 2|entertain will publish DVD products for the new pre-school show which started airing last month.
‘Baby Jake’ was developed by Darrall Macqueen and combines
storytelling, humour and a mixture of live action and 2D photographic animation bringing to life the magical imagination of a young child and celebrating the special bond between two young siblings.
Darrall Macqueen joint MD Billy Macqueen, who is also the executive producer of the show, said, "These deals build upon the UK master toy licence signed with Vivid in June and reinforce the early success of ‘Baby Jake’ on CBeebies itself and on the BBC‘s catch-up platforms. Since launching on 4 July, Baby Jake has been a permanent fixture in the CBeebies iPlayer ‘Top Five‘ and grew from 240,000 viewings in week one to a stunning half a million viewings in week two. We are delighted that 2|entertain and Egmont have partnered with Darrall Macqueen and BBC Worldwide to expand Baby Jake‘s success from the small screen to the high street.
BBC Worldwide, who were last month confirmed as the licensing agent for the brand, has secured a raft of partners to develop product programmes including Vivid as the UK master toy company.
Egmont has been appointed to develop the book publishing range with plans to roll-out in July 2012.
Egmont Publishing Group MD David Riley said, "Egmont are thrilled to be welcoming Baby Jake to the Egmont portfolio. Baby Jake perfectly captures the essence of childhood and we are excited to be creating books and magazines which will enable children to laugh, sing, wiggle, jiggle and scribble along with Baby Jake and his friends. We are delighted to be working with
Darrall Macqueen Ltd to bring this fantastic property to life on the page."
2|entertain, which works in the children‘s DVD space, has also signed up to the brand with plans to publish the debut DVD in the first half of next year.
