Edutainment Center for In the Night Garden Opens in China

LONDON: BBC Worldwide has teamed up with local licensee Ladder to launch an edutainment center in Shanghai, China, that features the characters from the hit series In the Night Garden.

The center, which opened this past weekend, provides a place where children can play in an educational environment that includes the characters from In the Night Garden. The center was developed by Ladder, which manages 250 similar centers across Greater China. BBC Worldwide and Ladder intend to launch a further two by the end of the year. Ladder will operate another In the Night Garden center in Hangzhou, a third in Shanghai by the end of the summer.

The In the Night Garden TV series launched on CCTV in May 2009. A range of products have been released in the region as well.

Stephen Davies, the director of BBC Worldwide Audio & Music, said: “The launch of this new center is an exciting moment for us—taking great quality children’s programs and their licensing extensions around the world for children to enjoy and reinvesting profits back into the BBC for great programming.”

Yen Shawn Wu, Ladder’s president, commented: “The preschool environment is considered to be one of the most important aspects in a child’s development in China. All the activity that we undertake is about providing a safe and educational environment to encourage children’s development.”