New Licensees for BBC Worldwide’s In the Night Garden

LONDON, April 23: BBC Worldwide
has appointed three new licensees for its live-action preschool series In
the Night Garden, including Golden
Bear Products to manufacture and distribute a nursery range for the brand
across the U.K.

Scheduled to launch in
early 2008, the nursery range from Golden Bear Products will include teethers,
buggie toys and first activity fabric toys. In addition, BBC Worldwide has
granted Golden Bear the non-exclusive global manufacturing rights to supply BBC
Worldwide appointed licensees.

BBC Worldwide has also
agreed to a deal with Vivid Imaginations, who will develop a new range of
infant arts and crafts products for In the Night Garden under the Crayola Beginnings brand in the U.K. and
Ireland. The new product will be available beginning in September, and will
include creative kits and activity products. Crayola Beginnings is the only
arts and crafts brand for children as young as 12 months.

DanJam Toys has been
tapped to develop a range of traditional wooden role-play and learning toys for
a retail launch in the U.K. This initial range consists of nine lines and
features Igglepiggle’s boat and stacking Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and Tombliboo
toys. The lead line is the pull-along, stacking Ninky Nonk train with 20
individual pieces. Traditional wooden toys such as an abacus, nested stacking
blocks and flip-around day and night clock are also available. Available from
June, the product will be offered across a wide selection of major toy
retailers in the U.K.

Additionally, BBC
Worldwide confirmed that according to new data from NPD, In the Night Garden is now the biggest license in the Total Licensed
Toy and Game market, ahead of classic kids’ properties such as such as Thomas
and Friends and Winnie the Pooh. The latest NPD data also reveals that products from
In the Night Garden’s master
toy licensee Hasbro dominate the top 20 bestseller list with four products,
including the 12-inch talking plush and mini-plush assortment, making the
leader board.

Produced by Ragdoll, In
the Night Garden is a modern interpretation
of a nursery rhyme picture book.

Gill Pritchard, the
director of children’s at BBC Worldwide, said: “We’re thrilled that In the
Night Garden has soared to this
level of success in such a short space of time. Less than a year since it
entered the market we are competing with long established preschool winners.”

She continued: “The deal
with Golden Bear, our tremendously successful licensee on Charlie and Lola, is further testament to the pedigree of licensees
we attract with this property and we hope that with them and with Crayola,
DanJam and other new and existing licensee partners, we will continue to
achieve this success with In the Night Garden.”

—By
Irene Lew