Los Angeles – BabyFirst and Shanghai Media Group (SMG) have inked a deal to launch US-based child development channel BabyFirstTV on the latter’s BestTV IPTV platform in China from May 2008. Established in November 2005 as a subsidiary of SMG, BesTV is the first IPTV company in the Chinese mainland. The agreement with BesTV follows recent Asian carriage deals sealed to offer BabyFirstTV in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea, with more regional carriage deals expected to close. Internationally, BabyFirst concluded full-time carriage deals with terrestrial and satellite operators in Europe and Latin American including France’s CanalSat, UK’s BSkyB, as well as Canada’s Bell ExpressVu satellite and Rogers Cable. In the US, BabyFirstTV is available on satellite broadcasters DirecTV and Dish Networks, along with MSOs Comcast and Charter. BabyFirst offers 24-hour commercial-free child development programming developed under the guidance of an advisory board comprising child psychologists, educators and pediatricians worldwide.