Immediate Media, tonies® and Event Merchandising on board with popular new CBeebies show.
Following its successful debut on CBeebies and iPlayer, the licensing programme for new preschool favourite Monty & Co is starting to build, with a trio of partners coming on board.
Immediate Media has added the show to its popular CBeebies magazine, while Event Merchandising will be creating and managing an online store which will be up and running for the summer and boasting a full range of merchandise.
In addition, tonies® will be adding a Monty Tonie to its line-up of preschool audio characters with a launch planned for summer 2022.
Monty & Co achieved consistent audience numbers for its first season, both in the linear space and on iPlayer, where it has already hit one million plays. New episodes are planned for production towards the end of 2021.
“Everyone involved is incredibly positive with the performance of the show to date,” said Ian Wickham, director at Licensing Link Europe, which is handling the global licensing programme for Monty & Co. “The characters are easy to engage with, the scripts for each episode are well written and play like mini dramas. Parents and children are loving the live action, the humour, the songs and the silliness included in each episode.”
Ian continued: “Monty & Co is a refreshing change to the plethora of animated content pitched at the preschooler. Warm, traditional and endearing are definitely aspects of Monty’s success and I’m sure one of the reasons why parents are talking about the show in the playground – which is a very good thing.”
Liz Peters, portfolio manager at tonies® is confident that Monty will make a popular figurine within its collection.
Liz commented: “We are very excited to add Monty Tonie to our portfolio for 2022. He’s going to make a very popular figurine that little ones will love to pop on their Toniebox! We are looking forward to working closely with the show’s producers to create bespoke audio content for the Tonie, incorporating all that humour, fun and silliness, as well the action and songs that fans enjoy and expect from Monty & Co.”
With the new online store due to be up and running by the summer, Jeremy Goldsmith of Event Merchandise explained why the company was keen to be involved. “The producers have created a wonderful show, and we are delighted to be designing and operating the online store for Monty & Co, along with a fun selection of products,” he commented. “The characters of this hit series join our selected line-up of licensed properties.”
Meanwhile, Hollie Fisher, editor at CBeebies magazine is excited to feature Monty & Co in the title. She offered: “It’s a funny, loveable mini comedy drama which we think will resonate well with both our grown-up and younger, preschool audiences.”
