Consumer Products

• France
  Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products in France (NVCP) has inked a multi-year deal with local publishing house, Bayard Presse, to launch a bi-monthly SpongeBob SquarePants branded magazine. The partnership marks the first-ever SpongeBob SquarePants magazine in the market and will see the product – with premium attached - available from 1 April at all good stores, book shops and kiosks.
• Germany
  NVCP has extended its current deal with local biscuit maker, NV Biscuits Delacre SA, to launch Dora the Explorer biscuits across Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The vanilla flavoured biscuits will be available in 175g packets with nine individual packs of two biscuits at all supermarket and food stores from 1 April.
• Netherlands
  Following the re-branding of Toys R Us to Toys XL in the Netherlands, NVCP has secured permanently positioned point of sale for Nickelodeon pre-school properties, Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!, within the toy retailer’s Utrecht shop. Plans to roll out the initiative across all stores in the market shortly are also in place.
• UK
  NVCP UK’s ‘Year of the Sponge’ is gathering pace with SpongeBob SquarePants licensing deals across the board. A DVD with the ‘SpongeBob and the Big Wave’ episode featuring Johnny Depp, along with several others, is launching on 6th April, whilst THQ have just launched Frantic Fry Cook for Nintendo DS. Paramount Home Entertainment is launching six SpongeBob SquarePants products - twice the normal number of titles per year - and SonyBMG is releasing a SpongeBob SquarePants Greatest Hits CD. Fashion chain TopMan is launching a third SpongeBob SquarePants T-shirt style, along with branded boxers shorts.