BBC Worldwide has announced deals with KBS N, a commercial arm of South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS, and Japanese children’s television channel, Kids Station, to launch CBeebies branded blocks across both Pay TV platforms.
In South Korea, the license agreement will see new cable channel, KBS Kids, airing preschoolers’ CBeebies programmes for an hour Mondays to Fridays, reaching over 16 million subscribers. The programme block will launch on Tuesday May 5th, which is also Children’s Day in the country.
KBS Kids’ viewers will be able to watch a range of popular content daily from 10am for key titles committed to the positive development of children, including Sarah & Duck, Hey Duggee and Baby Jake. The programmes will be repeated daily at 2pm.
The growing demand for English learning for small children has also seen a deal cemented with Kids Station in Japan for 100 episodes of CBeebies content, including Wibbly Pig, Dinopaws and Hey Duggee. Launching on June 22nd, the programmes will air Mondays to Fridays from 10:30am to 10:50am, and will provide Japanese children with the opportunity to develop social interaction, language skills and educational values.
Soojin Chung VP & General Manager North East Asia, BBC Worldwide, said: “The CBeebies’ brand and its programmes have great resonance with pre-schoolers’ parents and carers in Asia. In Korea and Japan, parents and carers of pre-schoolers trust the brand and its programmes for its ‘learning through fun’ proposition in a safe environment.
In South Korea, CBeebies is already available in a variety of ways – via a channel, and SVOD, and even via tablet SVOD on Woongjin, a collaboration between Woongjin and Samsung tablets.
In Japan, CBeebies programmes have been airing for many years on pay and terrestrial television. This partnership with KBS Kids and Kids Station, will enable us to extend our brand further, reaching millions more homes in South Korea and Japan with our award-winning and highly rated preschool branded content.”
CBeebies’ programmes are a mix of new and landmark, high-quality, UK-produced programmes to educate and entertain the BBC’s youngest audiences.
