British indie studio Acamar Films has appointed El Ocho as the licensing and merchandising agent for its International Emmy-winning preschool series Bing in Spain and Portugal. The show is set to debut on Clan TVE in Spain later this year and currently airs on Portugal’s Canal Panda.
El Ocho’s co-founders Eva Rubira and Pilar Fernandez-Vega say that they are preparing a licensing program for the region which will see the first products launched in the second half of 2017. Bing already has more than 18 licensees on board in the U.K., alongside global partners Fisher Price and HarperCollins — new partners in key categories will be announced soon.
Produced by Acamar Films and Dublin’s Brown Bag Films, Bing is based on the books by award-winning author-illustrator Ted Dewan, and celebrates the noisy, joyful, messy reality of everyday life as a preschooler as it follows bunny Bing and his caregiver Flop. The show broadcasts in many key territories, including U.K., France, Germany, Benelux, Israel, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand.
Bing has been nominated for a BAFTA and won the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Children’s Television Episode (2014) and the International Emmy Award in the Kids Preschool category (2016). It is also a consistent top performer for animation on the U.K. iTunes store, and boasts 94 million downloads on BBC’s iPlayer in addition to 290k-plus DVD copy sales.
