British preschool toon Boj heads to iQiyi

Chinese on-demand platform iQiyi has bought another British preschool toon.

The SVOD service has bought the English- and Mandarin-language streaming rights to Cbeebies’ Boj, which UK indie Pesky Productions produces and sells internationally.

Baidu-owned iQiyi has been hovering up CBeebies toons, recently scoring a deal to run a branded-block comprising more than 300 hours of programming, following a deal with BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm.

For Brighton-based Pesky, the deal comes on its twentieth birthday. David Hodgson and Claire Underwood launched the company in 1997, and went on to produce shows such as The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers and Invisible Network of Kids.

Boj debuted on CBeebies in the UK in 2014, following the escapades of a rare outback bandicoot, who creates “stuff from other stuff” in his home of Giggle Park.

It has since sold to the likes of RTE in Ireland, S4C in Wales, France Télévision, YLE in Finland, RTVE in Spain, ABC in Australia, Sprout in the US, Knowledge Network/BBC Kids in Canada, CBeebies in Latin America, and Jim-Jam in 100 territories.

Pesky produces the show in association with Wales-based Cloth Cat Animation and Ireland’s Kavaleer Productions.