Sony Creative Products and Sony Music Entertainment España target multiple markets

Tokyo-based Sony Creative Products Inc. (SCP), which manages licensing in the Japanese market for Pingu on behalf of rights owner Mattel Inc, has announced a new distribution partnership for Pingu with Sony Music Entertainment España, S.L. (SME), the Madrid-based music publishing and distribution company.

The launch was formally announced at Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) in London. It was attended by Mr Hitoshi Hasegawa, President, SCP, Mr Takeshi Nakamura, Licensing Manager, Sony Creative Products Inc, and Mr Sergi Reitg, Media Content Director, SME.

SME will distribute the recently launched animated series Pingu in the City in a number of European and Latin American territories, handling all Latin America countries, excluding Brazil, as well as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Pingu in the City has been shown on NHK ETV in Japan since October 2017, where it has enjoyed great success with young audiences.

SME is best known for managing local music artists in Spain but has a strong and well-established network for distributing animated programming. In fact, this partnership will build on the reach of the Sony Music Group worldwide, ensuring effective distribution for the new Pingu series as it extends its reach to new countries.

SCP and SME are also planning to create products and promotions targeting EU markets that bring together SME-managed artists and Pingu. SCP is aiming to extend this business model to future partnerships involving animated and other properties.

Season one of the new, entirely Japanese made and produced computer-animated TV series Pingu In The City (two series of 26 x 7 minutes) launched on the NHK ETV channel – which is owned by Japan's public broadcaster, NHK – on October 7, 2017. This delightful new series brings the cheeky, lovable penguin and his family from their small village to the big city, where he meets many other fascinating penguins, finds out about what they do and – inevitably – gets into trouble.

José María Barbat, President, Sony Music Entertainment España, S.L, says: “We, at Sony Music Entertainment (SME), are thrilled about this new partnership with Sony Creative Products (SCP). It means the start of a new business venture in premium content as we share a common ambition to drive the growth of SCP’s entertainment content in Latin American territories. Since we started conversations early this year, we’ve felt our future together is highly promising. We accept the challenge to expand the Pingu property and we look forward to extending our shared dream in other entertainment projects.”

Takeshi Nakamura, Global Business Group Licensing Manager, Sony Creative Products Inc, says: “This agreement with SME will provide a marvellous platform to extend the market for a delightful and highly entertaining reimagining of the Pingu story. It will also open up opportunities for innovative new business models. We’re delighted to be announcing this highly significant partnership with SME at one of Europe’s most important licensing events.”