5th Feb 2008 07:01
Entertainment One Ltd05 February 2008 NICKELODEON'S NOGGIN ACQUIRES BROADCAST RIGHTS TO ENTERTAINMENT ONE'S "PEPPA PIG" FOR NORTH AMERICA Entertainment One ("E1") today announces that Noggin, an educational networkowned by Nickelodeon, has acquired the broadcast rights for the first series ofPeppa Pig, the UK pre-school cartoon series. Noggin has an option on all futureseries and one-off specials. Patrice Theroux, President of Filmed Entertainment at Entertainment One, said:"The connected-learning approach offered by NOGGIN provided us with the perfectplatform on which to showcase Peppa Pig to US audiences. We are excited to workwith the team at NOGGIN to replicate the success for Peppa Pig that we havealready achieved in the UK and overseas. This series is central to E1'sstrategy of owning, distributing and exploiting filmed entertainment content ona global basis and through our growing multi-territory distribution platform." "We're very excited to have Peppa and her family join the Noggin family," saidTeri Weiss, Senior Vice President of Production and Development, NickelodeonPreschool Television. Peppa Pig , a series of short segments which recently began airing on NOGGIN,was first broadcast in the UK on Channel 5 in June 2004, followed by Nick Jr. inJuly of the same year. In the UK, Peppa Pig is consistently one of the highestrated shows on Five's for pre-school audience strand, "Milkshake" and on NickJr., the number one rated pre-school channel in the UK. The Peppa Pig brand now generates in excess of £25 million in retail sales perannum in the UK, through an ever growing network of over 35 UK licenseesspanning toys, books, magazines, clothing, footwear, accessories, outdoor toys,games and DVDs. In the UK alone, there have been 7 DVDs released, generatingrevenues of over £2.5m through sales of more than 650,000 units. The evergrowing strength of Peppa Pig is reflected in the toy line which won the highlycoveted "Pre School Toy Range for 20007" at the Toy Retail Award Ceremony inLondon on 31st January. Peppa Pig has retained 2nd place in the pre school toyrankings based on retail sales value since September 2007(NPD data) putting itahead of established brands including Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer andgenerating in excess of £12 million p.a at retail in the UK Peppa Pig clothinghas generated approximately £2 million p.a. at retail. With additionalcategories being added on an ongoing basis Peppa Pig's position within the preschool market will continue to strengthen. Internationally, Peppa Pig is sold to over 50 broadcasters, spanning more than160 territories and translated into 25 languages. The series has consistentlygarnered top 5 ratings in France (#1 new pre-school show on France 5),Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Australia, where territory-specific licensingprograms are proving extremely successful. The animated series of Peppa Pig consists of more than 100 episodes over twoseries, with Peppa's first ever Christmas Special airing in '07, and a thirdseries scheduled for production in '08. For further information, please contact: DDA PR Lawrence Atkinson; Lisa Lazure E: [email protected]; [email protected]: +44 (0) 207 932 9800 / +1 310 205 4868W: www.ddapr.com Note to the Editors: About Entertainment One Ltd. (LSE: ETO) Admitted to trading on AIM on 29 March2007, Entertainment One Ltd's strategy is to build a leading global independententertainment content ownership and distribution business which acquires films,television programs and music content and exploits these rights in all mediathroughout the world. Entertainment One is the largest distributor of homeentertainment products in the Canadian market. Following the acquisition ofSeville Entertainment in Canada on 20 August 2007, it also has a significantpresence in the theatrical and international sales markets. Outside CanadaEntertainment One owns Koch Entertainment, the largest independent record labelin North America and a leading independent distributor of music and video in theUnited States and Contender, one of the leading independent UK distributors offilmed entertainment. www.entertainmentone.ca About NOGGIN NOGGIN, the 24-hour, commercial-free educational preschool network fromNickelodeon, currently reaches 65 million households via cable, digital cableand satellite TV. NOGGIN is like preschool on TV, with educational programmingboth on-air and online at www.noggin.com (http://www.noggin.com/) . NOGGIN andall related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom InternationalInc. ### This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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