Aardman to sell Hopster originals

Aardman will shop Hopster shows incuding Clever Brenda

UK-based preschool SVoD service Hopster has agreed a distribution deal for its in-house productions with the sales arm of Wallace & Gromit producer Aardman.

Hopster has licensed its original animated content, which includes Clever Brenda (5×2′), Two Minute Tales (10×2′), The Little Toymaker (1×6′) and Hopster Jam (5×2′) to Bristol-based Aardman.

Aardman will seek free and pay TV, VoD and home entertainment deals for the content, which is produced by Hopster Studios.

“This agreement is a huge milestone in the evolution of Hopster that will help establish us as a vibrant creative hub focused on the development of new IPs that kids can discover and fall in love with,” said Nick Walters, founder and CEO of Hopster.

“Already we see that over half of our engagement comes from our original content, including games and videos, and with the experience of Aardman now behind us, we hope to introduce our beautiful shows and music to even more families around the world.”

Aardman’s slate of third-party productions also includes Blue Zoo’s Digby Dragon and Sunrise Productions’ Munki & Trunk. The firm named Alison Taylor as its head of sales and acquisitions in 2016.

Hopster was founded in 2013 and has since expanded into more than 100 countries, including the US. The firm received investment from Sony Pictures Television Networks in return for a minority stake in the company in 2016.