BBCWW inks first children’s deal with Amazon

BBC Worldwide has acquired its first multi-year children’s licensing deal with SVOD service Amazon Prime Video in the UK and Ireland.

The deal will give subscribers in the region access to a raft of children’s TV series from CBeebies and CBBC, including Hey Duggee, Go Jetters, Sarah & Duck, Charlie & Lola and Gigglebiz as well as The Story of Tracy Beaker and Horrible Histories.

Over 520 episodes of CBeebies and CBBC content will become available on Amazon, with series start dates staggered over the year and some already available.

The deal was agreed between Jonathan Newman, sales and business development director for BBCWW, which is the BBC’s commercial arm, and Amazon Prime Video.

Newman said: “The deal reflects the growing investment that leading streaming services like Amazon Prime Video are making to offer world-class, high quality children’s programming to their subscribers.”

This week, Amazon Channels also confirmed that its India-focused channel Heera will include titles from prodco Salman Khan Ventures, including Tubelight.

Future films from Salman Khan Ventures will premiere first on Heera in the UK, after theatrical release in India, and two months before satellite and television broadcasts. Existing movies like Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Kick, Jai Ho, and Hero are now available.

Amazon Prime Video will have exclusive rights to the Khan films on a worldwide basis.

“This exclusive worldwide Prime Video streaming deal with him is one of the biggest star deals to have ever been done in the world,” said Amazon Prime Video head of content for Asia Pacific James Farrell. “India is a top priority market for Amazon and we believe that this love India has for films, the passion, the energy and the talent of India needs to be on a worldwide stage for global audiences to see. ”