Playground TV rolls out across Europe

Playground TV is offered via iOS and Android mobiles and the web

New streaming service Playground TV, aimed at multilingual kids, has launched in eight more European territories after making its debut in the UK last month.

The service is now also available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

Playground TV is offered as an ad-supported streaming service, with an ad-free subscription version set to follow in the coming months.

It features a range of content for children aged from two to nine and has been developed to help kids discover content in a variety of languages in a safe way.

It targets the children of people living outside their country of birth who want their children to learn their mother tongue via engaging, entertaining and appropriate animated content.

To begin with, it offers 14 animated channels in French, Spanish, English, Hindi, Mandarin and Persian on iOS, Android and the web, with programming including Om Nom, Mouk, Pirata & Capitano, Mr Bean, Mofy, Oddbods and Molang.

The service, which arrived in the UK last month, will initially have more than 100 series and 5,000 episodes, with more shows to follow, the company said.

It recently struck a deal with Zoland Animation in China to bring titles such as Magic Eye is Back, Rubi and Panda Fanfare in Mandarin/Chinese to its service.

Playground TV is backed by Sweden-based Playground, which was founded in 2019 by Daniel Nordberg, who previously headed the content business for Opera’s smart TV division, later spun out as Vewd Software.

The service has an advisory team consisting of Alex Carloss, former head of original programming at YouTube; John Robson, co-founder of Moonbug; Rachna Bhasin, former chief business officer at Magic Leap; and Damon Berger, head of digital engagement at Mattel.

The company is financed by business angel Ulf Ivarsson, Quixel veteran Daniel Somos and Fredrik Olofsson of Twig Ventures.

“Providing kids with easy and safe access to animated video content in their native language can be a major challenge for parents with small kids. Playground is a dedicated multilingual streaming service that is on a mission to help kids get access to video content in their native language safely and easily,” said Nordberg.