If you’re a parent with young children in 2024, you may or may not be familiar with Moonbug Entertainment.
Whether you are or not, however, there’s a very good chance that you’re familiar with any number of intellectual properties owned by the media titan.
Shows that fall under Moonbug include ubiquitous children’s programming like “Cocomelon,” “Blippi” and “Meekah.”
(And if you’re a parent with a young child who is unfamiliar with those shows, consider your life all the better for it.)
Those Moonbug shows — and there are more — already garner a ton of viewership among their preschool audience.
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“Cocomelon,” for instance, was one of the most watched streaming shows of 2023, bringing in an eye-popping 36 billion viewing minutes.
Like any empire, however, Moonbug doesn’t appear at all content with its current levels of mega-success.
According to a Deadline report, Moonbug has outlined two paths for expansion.
First, Moonbug has already launched a “Blippi”-focused channel in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.
Do you have kids or grandkids who like “CoCoMelon”?
Yes: 19% (3 Votes)
No: 81% (13 Votes)
For the uninformed, Blippi is the eponymous character of the show and explores various venues to explain to children how things work.
The show has become popular enough to effectively be spun off into its own “universe” of sorts.
This new MENA linear (traditional cable) channel will focus on “Blippi,” but also feature a number of spin-offs that are targeting above Moonbug’s typical demographic.
Per Deadline, this new “Blippi” channel “will feature a number of spin-offs targeted at 4-8 year olds.”
“We wanted to do something new and innovative and just thought we should name the channel after one of our most successful IPs,” Nicolas Eglau, the man in charge of Moonbug’s global distribution, told Deadline. “This content has the ability to deliver values in a playful and fun way, so we take it very seriously.”
Eglau specifically cited the success of the “Cocomelon” Netflix series aimed at older children — and how successful its been — as a source of inspiration for Blippi getting its own linear streaming channel.
Eglau also seemed to be brimming with excitement about expanding Moonbug’s reach further throughout Europe.
The Moonbug representative excitedly noted the currently established partnerships in Europe paving the way for more, as well as his clear appetite for more.
“I personally never thought we would be able to do this,” Eglau told Deadline. “Hopefully this is the first step of us entering Western European markets.
“I have a few more markets on my list for this year.”
The rapid expansion of Moonbug should be somewhat concerning for parents.
Any platform as large and influential as a Moonbug show has the potential to sway a number of younger, more impressionable viewers. That obviously leaves all sorts of untapped potential for trouble.
For a crystal clear example of those potential perils, look no further than modern Disney.
That being said, “Cocomelon” has already waded into the culture wars when it controversially introduced hamfisted LGBT elements into the show. That decision prompted swift outcries to boycott the company, though those aforementioned viewership numbers suggest that the boycott was not particularly successful.
But if you, like many right-minded parents, are at all concerned about those far left ideologies being injected into children’s programming, take special note of Moonbug.
The company and it’s left-leaning ideals are growing — and they don’t seem too keen on stopping.
