Cannes, France, MIPCOM – Mattel Creations, a centralised theatrical, television and digital content division from Mattel Inc., announced brand new international deals for its world-leading children’s TV show and brand, Thomas & Friends.
Following the unprecedented Chinese theatrical release of Thomas & Friends: Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure earlier this year, continued strong growth for the brand throughout Asia Pacific is led by China where there are multiple new deals for Thomas & Friends with broadcasters and digital platforms, including with Chinese state television broadcaster, China Central Television (China), as well as LeEco (China), China Mobile (China) and Air Media (China). A Thomas & Friends channel recently launched on Youku (China), with over 3 billion people reached in China across all Thomas & Friends digital platforms.
Other Asian broadcasters onboard to take new Thomas & Friends content include NHK (Japan), Global TV (Indonesia), GMA (Philippines), KBS (South Korea), TVNZ (New Zealand) and TVB (Hong Kong), with these and the Chinese deals coming on the back of Mattel Creations’ successful drive to gain ground in Asia Pacific.
This is matched in the rest of the world where a raft of new international broadcaster deals to take Thomas & Friends series and specials includes: ABC TV (Australia), Channel 5 (UK), Minimini (Poland), Next (South Africa) and RTÉ (Ireland).
In addition to its broadcast success, the eleventh feature-length special Thomas & Friends: The Great Race has recently landed national-wide theatrical releases in the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Mexico and for the first time ever, Italy, with over 70 cinemas taking part in the screenings.
Also announced at MIPCOM, Mattel Creations have signed a new deal with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment for European home entertainment distribution of Thomas & Friends specials in Benelux, Greece, Turkey and Czech Republic. The deal also includes European home entertainment distribution of Thomas & Friends Series 20 in Italy, France, Malta, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican, Luxembourg, Andorra and French language Belgium.
