New Licensing Deals for The Jungle Book

HYDERABAD: DQ Entertainment has inked a three-year agreement with the Copyright Promotions Licensing Group (CPLG) for The Jungle Book.

CPLG will be responsible for the product merchandising, publishing, promotions and direct-to-retail strategy for multiple territories. This includes Italy, the U.K. and Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Japan. CPLG will act as DQE’s licensing and merchandising agent for these territories.

DQE has signed a second deal for ‘fabric products’ with Belgium-based N V Belltex. Belltex will manufacture an array of products, including tents, quilt cover sets, pillowcases, fitted sheets, curtains, decoration cushions, beach towels, ponchos, bathrobes, hand and bath towels, gloves, carpets, handkerchiefs, polar plaids and sleeping bags, among a range of other merchandise with The Jungle Book characters and elements. This agreement was signed through DQE co-production partner TF1 Enterprises, which acts as its licensing and merchandising agent for France.

Tapaas Chakravarti, the chairman and CEO of DQE Group, commented: "We are delighted to continue to expand licensing and distribution opportunities for The Jungle Book. We have always believed that the 3D Jungle Book would become a hugely popular television program but for home entertainment, licensing, merchandising and publishing its success will most likely exceed our expectations. We have successfully negotiated nine marquee licensing deals worldwide with a combined revenue estimate of circa $15 million provided by the licensees. Several other publishing and merchandising negotiations are currently ongoing and though The Jungle Book is a classical property the feature-like quality of this 3D TV series written by leading writers in United Kingdom and France is working perfectly for contemporary licensing strategies. We believe that our collaboration with CPLG as well as Belltex will be mutually beneficial."

Katarina Dietrich, the chief executive at CPLG, added: "Copyright Promotions Licensing Group  is excited to work with DQ Entertainment on Jungle Book in Italy, Spain, Portugal, U.K. and Japan to put together a successful licensing and merchandising program. The brilliant animation, fantastic character designs will be found on many different consumer products. We are looking forward to a very successful partnership."