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Pocket.watch adds 13 new creators to its roster of global digital stars

Pocket.watch, the leading kids and family studio creating global franchises for Generation Alpha, has announced the addition of 13 new creators to its roster of global superstars. The move significantly expands the company’s audience, content library, and original content slate with the world’s biggest kids and family digital stars.

The new creators bring further diversity, broader age ranges and new formats to pocket.watch, which already boasts content and original intellectual property from powerhouse creators like Ryan’s World, Toys and Colors, Onyx Family, Kids Diana Show and LankyBox, the current No. 1 gaming channel on all of YouTube.

In 2021, pocket.watch content was watched for over 4 billion hours across the company’s 44 global distribution partners including AVOD, SVOD and linear platforms in over 129 countries. By integrating these new creators into their unique content distribution offering, pocket.watch is positioned for significant growth in 2022 and beyond. These additions bring the company’s library to over 70,000 videos, cumulating to more than 15,000 hours of content available to streaming platforms for distribution. The company continues to innovate the way it packages content to include new formats beyond its breakthrough MishMash format which transforms short-form videos into twenty-two minute episodes capable of being distributed on all types of premium platforms globally.

Pocket.watch is also developing original content inspired by many of its new partners, opening up the opportunity for these creators to participate in entirely new franchises that grow way beyond YouTube – following in the footsteps of other pocket.watch originals like the Emmy-nominated Ryan’s Mystery Playdate and the animated series Onyx Monster Mysteries and Love, Diana Adventures.

“The pocket.watch library of kids and family content is unlike any other in the industry,” says Chris M. Williams, Founder and CEO, pocket.watch. “Our unique approach to packaging content, as well as our skills in developing original content with the biggest digital stars and creators in the world allows us to supply all types of streaming platforms with proven content and IP that attracts and engages massive audiences everywhere it goes, while providing our creator partners with new opportunities to monetize content beyond YouTube.”

New pocket.watch creators represent a broad range of quality kids and family content genres including gaming, art instruction, preschool animation, edutainment and sketch comedy. They are listed below alongside the number of total views for their channel(s) on YouTube in the month of April 2022.

  • Vania Mania Kids: 222 million
    • Vania Mania Kids stars 5 siblings: Vania, Mania, Stefy, Dasha and Alex! Kids and families around the world join in on their adventures in pretend play through laughter, singing and learning.
  • Hudson’s Playground: 99 million
    • From tractors to bulldozers to balers, Hudson’s Playground has a whole stable of super cool farming equipment that ignites kids’ curiosity about technology, farming, and the great outdoors.
  • Mackenzie Turner: 68.8 million
    • 22-year old Mackenzie Turner loves spreading happiness around the world through gaming and vlog content. Best known for her fun and lively personality, fans love tuning in to watch Mackenzie play their favorite Roblox games!
  • Art for Kids Hub: 40 million
    • Art for Kids Hub is on a mission to teach their fans to learn how to draw! Rob and his family teach a new art lesson every Monday through Friday on their channel.
  • ShanePlays: 19 million
    • Since 2017, fans around the world can’t get enough of ShanePlays’ wild reality-based Roblox movies and machinima.
  • Kamdenboy & Kyraboo: 13.8 million
    • Kamdenboy & Kyraboo are a dynamic sibling duo that uses imagination to conquer the world through learning and play! With some help from mom and dad, Kamdenboy and Kyraboo find fun in challenges, skits, pretend play, and more.
  • Scratch Garden: 13.1 million
    • Scratch Garden creates fun, educational animated content for kids, educators, students, and anyone else that likes laughing and learning at the same time!
  • The Stella Show: 12 million
    • Stella is an effervescent 7-year-old, who creates hilariously entertaining skits and challenges with older brother, Jameson, and her parents, Erika and James.
  • Denis: 7.3 million
    • Denis is an uber-popular gaming creator best known for entertaining audiences through Roblox content that highlights Denis’ friendly and easygoing personality.
  • Koala & Giraffe: 6 million
    • Kids love tuning in to Koala & Giraffe’s “Mini Musicals” that keep audiences laughing while teaching important lessons with humorous nursery rhymes.
  • Kaven Adventures: 5.7 million
    • Kids love joining 6-year old Kaven on epic adventures in-game and in real life! Kaven and his Dad play the hottest kid-friendly games, from trending apps to the ever-popular Roblox.
  • GEM Sisters: 5.6 million
    • GEM stands for Gaming with Evangeline and Mercedes! Fans tune in to watch them play kid favorite games including Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft.
  • Doods: 3.3 million
    • Doods’ clever 3D animations take regular household items and bring them to life by showcasing their unique perspectives in humorous everyday situations.

For more information about the pocket.watch roster of franchises and creators and its premium slate of content, visit pocket.watch.

Ryan’s Rescue Squad video game launches today

Publisher of family-friendly interactive entertainment Outright Games, along with Sunlight Entertainment and p.w Games, the gaming division of kids’ entertainment studio pocket.watch, have today launched Ryan’s Rescue Squad, the newest game from global kids’ phenomenon Ryan’s World.

Developed by Stage Clear Studios, the new rescue adventure is available now on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, XBox One, XBox Series X|S, PC and Stadia.

 

Players must step up and rescue Ryan’s friends, who have been captured and transported across different worlds by the evil Dark Titan and his wicked allies, Robo Combo and Packrat.

Key features:

●       Choose your Character – Be Ryan, Combo Panda, Alpha Lexa, or Gus the Gummy Gator

●       Team up – Play together in local 2-player mode

●       Play minigames – Including Bulls Eye, Spaceship Flight, The Floor is Lava and Fire at Will

●       Power Up! – Eat Moe’s pizza to become invincible and more

●       Collect and Customise – Unlock and buy amazing new costumes for your character

A top creator on YouTube, Ryan’s World channels have generated over 68.6 billion lifetime views, and have amassed over 50 million subscribers across 9 channels. The Ryan’s World universe spans everything from toys to toothbrushes, clothes and now a second console video game following on from the  successful Race with Ryan, which was released with Outright Games in 2019. 

Terry Malham, CEO of Outright Games, says: “It was a wonderful experience to work with pocket.watch, p.w Games, and Sunlight Entertainment for our second game together. We’ve upped the fun, colour and excitement for this title and we feel we’ve created an action packed adventure that the family can enjoy playing together, particularly younger players. We can’t wait to share it with everyone.’’

Kerry Tucker, Chief Marketing and Franchise Officer of pocket.watch, adds: “Ryan’s World continues to grow every day, as we strive to create new exciting experiences that fans will love. Ryan is everywhere kids are – including on their favourite game consoles. We love that this is a game families and friends can play together in co-op mode.”

 

 

Pocket.watch appoints Manuel Torres Port as Global Head of Consumer Products

Pocket.watch, the kids and family entertainment company that creates global franchises from the YouTube stars and characters loved by Gen Alpha, has announced the appointment of Manuel Torres Port as Global Head of Consumer Products, effective immediately.

Torres Port will oversee all consumer products licensing for pocket.watch brands, focused on the growth of each franchise and the launch of new ones. With an eye toward international expansion, Torres Port will help pocket.watch navigate new markets around the world and brings with him almost three decades of growth experience at leading companies like Mattel, Nickelodeon, NBC Universal and Zag Entertainment. Under his leadership, his deals have contributed to over $1B US in net royalties throughout his career.

“We are thrilled to add such a seasoned and dynamic global consumer products licensing executive to the pocket.watch family – which truly upgrades our leadership in this important division,” says Xavier Kochhar, COO/CFO of pocket.watch. “Manuel is a force and I am excited to have him by my side as we execute pocket.watch’s long term monetisation growth strategy for our licensing business.”

“I couldn’t be more excited to join pocket.watch at this pivotal moment,” says Torres Port. “I have admired for some time the power of pocket.watch and its disruptive force in the entertainment industry, and I am grateful to Xavier and Chris for inviting me in to contribute to the company’s very bright future.”

While at Zag Entertainment, Torres Port was instrumental in the consolidation of key strategic commercial global deals around their top IP including the worldwide phenomenon Miraculous LadyBug. He oversaw NBCUniversal’s Consumer Products global portfolio of franchises including Illumination Entertainment Animation (Minions, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing), Jurassic WorldFast & Furious, Universal MonstersTrolls, Spirit, Curious George, among many others, and was instrumental in the consolidation of Dreamworks Animation Consumer Products into NBC. He served in various global roles at Nickelodeon both in New York and Miami, and was key in the relaunch of the worldwide franchise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 

 

Ryan’s World game ‘Ryan’s Rescue Squad’ coming to PC and consoles next year

Outright Games and pocket.watch have teamed up for new video game Ryan’s Rescue Squad, coming to consoles and PC in 2022. The game is based on global kids’ phenomenon ‘Ryan’s World’, whose YouTube channels receive over 1 billion views per month from over 48 million subscribers..

The side-scrolling platform adventure features two-player local co-op travel across slime-filled planets to rescue Ryan’s friends, who have been captured by the evil Dark Titan and his wicked allies Robo Combo and Packrat.

This announcement follows the first ever Ryan’s World FanFest real-time live streaming event that took place on Saturday 27 November. The stream was free to view globally for all of Ryan’s 30M+ fans and was an interactive event featuring puzzles and challenges, photo booths, downloadable content and Voice-Activated Emojis.

Ryan’s Rescue Squad will be released next year on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, XBox Series X, XBox One and PC.

 

Pocket.watch partners with YouTube sensations The Onyx Family for new animated series, video games, apparel and more

Kids and family entertainment company Pocket.watch today announced the wide release of animated comedy series Onyx Monster Mysteries and related games, merchandise and original music, marking an expansion of their successful ‘Onyx Family’ partnership.

Season 1 of the series, consisting of 12 episodes, will be widely released across dozens of streaming services just in time for Halloween. A special sneak preview of all 12 episodes of Season 2 is available exclusively on Amazon Kids+ beginning today and will go into wide release in December.

In Onyx Monster Mysteries, created by Albie Hecht, pocket.watch’s Chief Content Officer, and starring the Onyx Family (3.5 million subscribers), the Onyx Family is transformed into cartoon characters in an adventure series about the most endangered and misunderstood species in the world: monsters.

Onyx Monster Mysteries promotes diversity throughout the production, with the voice and musical talents of the Onyx Family as well as diverse production talent behind the camera. The show is proud to include the perspectives of showrunner Doreen Spicer (The Proud Family), Producer Jon Barnett and Creative Consultant Adrienne Lopez.

Fans can now stream Season 1 of ‘Onyx Monster Mysteries’ across 20+ platforms and Season 2 exclusively on Amazon Kids+.

The soundtrack of songs, all written and performed by the Onyx Family, is available across all major music services, including iTunes and Spotify, and weekly music videos featuring the animation will drop on the Onyx YouTube channel and across the family’s TikTok and Instagram accounts.

Four Onyx Monster Mysteries HTML mini-games, ‘Yeti Family Rescue,’ ‘Matchup!,’ ‘Spot the Difference,’ and ‘Word Search’ are available now on the pocket.watch mobile app.

Finally, Amazon will carry a brand new collection of Onyx Monster Mysteriesmerchandise, which includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, PopSockets, phone cases, and tote bags. Product is launching globally and available at amazon.com/onxyfamily.

“We are so lucky to get to work with the incredibly talented Onyx Family,” says Kerry Tucker, Chief Marketing and Franchise Officer, pocket.watch. “Onyx Monster Mysteries is an animated celebration of everything that makes this family so popular – music, humour, adventure and teamwork. At pocket.watch, we strive to create franchises that proudly represent our diverse global audience and we are thrilled to bring it to so many people, in such a unique way, through this many platforms at once.”

Amassing over 7 million social media followers, more than three billion views on their YouTube content and many more viewers more across major OTT platforms and streaming services including Hulu, Prime Video, and The Roku Channel, the Onyx Family consists of parents, Mirthell and Rita, and their four children Shalom, Sinead, Sade (Shasha), and Shiloh. Their mission is to reach families around the world to “Tell the Story, Feed the soul, Make them Laugh, Heal the heart.” Through funding community outreach programs, contributing to HBCU scholarships, and participating in various mission projects, their vision is to give back by inspiring families and children around the world to live out their greatest hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

The Onyx Family’s multi-million dollar portfolio includes videos, books, music, courses, podcasts, branded merchandise, consumable products, websites, speaking engagements, television appearances, animations, and streaming shows on multiple platforms and streaming services.

 

 

Pocket.watch teams up with YouTube superstars Toys and Colors for global franchise ‘Kaleidoscope City’

Family entertainment company pocket.watch, which specializes in extending kids and family YouTube stars and characters into global franchises like the mega-hit Ryan’s World, has slated spring 2022 for the launch of its latest project.

Kaleidoscope City will be based off Toys and Colors, the popular YouTube channel which amasses 1.5 billion views per month. The ensemble Asian-American cast features young friends Wendy, Alex, Emma, Jannie and Andrew, in addition to a host of Aunties and Uncles familiar to the channel’s massive audience.

Kaleidoscope City will come to life in an original live action/animated series, consumer products, gaming, podcasts, live events, and much more. The City is a magical world of colour where kids learn to see things from a new perspective and learn about diversity, varied points of view, conflict management and empathy.

“We are thrilled to partner with the incredible ensemble of Toys and Colors and we are so excited to introduce Kaleidoscope City as our next global kids and family franchise. This partnership reinforces our mission to bring kids more of what they love and to ensure that kids around the world see themselves in pocket.watch,” says Kerry Tucker, Chief Marketing and Franchise Officer of pocket.watch. “Our success in bringing franchise economics to the world’s most popular YouTube creators and produce, license and distribute original IP to every consumer touchpoint gives us the distinct opportunity to reach diverse audiences across the globe. Toys and Colors is a perfect addition to the pocket.watch family.”

Production is underway on an original hybrid live action/animation series created by pocket.watch Chief Content Officer, Albie Hecht, entitled “Toys and Colors in Kaleidoscope City”, featuring the Toys and Colors ensemble as live action characters against virtual photorealistic backgrounds combined with MOCAP CG animated characters – all produced in real time in the Unreal Game Engine. The franchise also introduces a cast of new animated characters who run various world bazaar shops and help the Toys and Colors crew navigate Kaleidoscope City. Baby Rainbow, Matcha, Dax and Chi Chi all have unique perspectives and personas and will serve as the inspiration for gaming, consumer products, podcasts, live events and more.

“We are so excited to join pocket.watch as their partners in becoming the next big global franchise for kids and families,” says Tim Nguyen of Toys and Colors. “After seeing what pocket.watch has done with brands like Ryan’s World and Love, Diana, and hearing about their incredible plans for Kaleidoscope City, we can’t wait to bring this new franchise to our fans all over the world.”

 

 

Pocket.watch and Ryan’s World steps into new partnership with footwear brand Skechers

Ryan’s World is making its foray into the footwear market thanks to a new partnership between Pocket.watch and Sunlight Entertainment that will see the kids’ franchise step into a new Skechers deal.

Co-branded Sketchers x Ryan’s World, the new collection is a collaborative effort between Ryan and the Skechers Kids design team and will launch in the United States this July. It will mark the first time that a major shoe brand has partnered with a kid influencer brand.

“At pocket.watch, our mission is to bring kids more of what they love,” said Kerry Tucker, chief marketing officer, pocket.watch. “This first of its kind collaboration between Ryan’s World and Skechers introduces footwear to the Ryan’s World franchise and gives kids the incredible opportunity to wear two of their favorite brands at once. Our collaboration with Skechers further demonstrates the massive appeal of the Ryan’s World brand, and its evolution from YouTube channel to pop culture phenomenon.”

Jeremy Saul, managing director of global licensing and strategic partnerships for Skechers, added: “Skechers has a long history of creating footwear that kids love to wear, and we believe our Skechers x Ryan’s World collection will resonate with Ryan’s fan base. Ryan is creative, fun, energetic – everything Skechers is for kids – it’s a perfect fit.”

“I’m excited to share these shoes with my fans,” said nine-year-old Ryan Kaji, who collaborated with Skechers on the collection. “It was fun to design the sneakers, and I can’t wait to show them off soon.”

Since its 2015 launch, Ryan’s World has grown to become one of the world’s largest and most successful kids’ franchises. The YouTube channels feature fun and easy science experiments, educational content, animated adventures, imaginative toy play, and videos that document daily life for the family of five, which includes Ryan’s younger twin sisters.

Ryan’s World also includes content distributed via streaming platforms, mobile and console games, Roblox and more. Ryan’s World consumer products span every category and are sold all over the world. Ryan’s World even has a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Pocket.watch taps Planeta Junior as European licensing agent for Love, Diana

Pocket.watch has tapped Planeta Junior to be its exclusive consumer products licensing agent for Love, Diana across France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and CEE, as well as support opportunities for the property at a wide European level.

It marks the latest licensing development for the popular YouTube series that recently named Spacetoon its licensing agent and toy partner for the MENA region, and handed global rights to Wow! Stuff last month. Love, Diana is a hybrid animation series from Pocket.watch, the team behind the famous Ryan’s World franchise.

Diana is the seven-year-old super-star behind the world’s third most watched YouTube channel: the Kids Diana Show, which has over 76 million followers. Diana, her brother Roma, and their parents create imaginative videos featuring songs and games. 

Love, Diana features 35 adventure-filled episodes that transport Diana into a new world: The Land of Play, where she is transformed into an animated character: The Princess of Play. The series highlights key values like friendship, leadership, family, imagination and the power of play.

Planeta Junior will be responsible for coordinating Love, Diana’s licensing and merchandising program.

Children’s programming is seeing its biggest demand ever globally, and we are thrilled to bring Love, Diana to new territories after an incredible franchise launch,” said Danny Spronz, managing director EMEA, pocket.watch. “Pocket.watch’s work in the kids entertainment sector has blazed a trail for many creator-led franchises, and we’re excited to work with Planeta Junior to deliver more of what kids and families clearly love.”

Diego Ibáñez Belaustegui, Planeta Junior Chief Brand Officer, added: “We have been bringing consumers the best experiences and products based on their favorite entertainment for the last 20 years.

“Diana is a wonderful character, full of charisma. Millions of children around the world adore her already. This IP is a breath of fresh air for the licensing industry. Planeta Junior would like to thank pocket.watch for the opportunity of working on such an innovative consumer products program.”

Spacetoon named master licensing agent and toy partner for Love, Diana across MENA

The family edutainment content producer, Spacetoon, has been named the new master consumer product licensing agent for Pocket.Watch’s Love, Diana brand across the MENA territory.

Under the deal, Spacetoon will launch a new line of toys and products, bringing Love,Diana items to shelf across the MENA toy market, appealing directly to Pocket.Watch’s growing audience base across the region as it build its global standing.

On top of this, Spacetoon has also secured the rights to localise, dub, and broadcast two of the most successful shows for Diana across Spacetoon free-to-air TV channel and Spacetoon GO online streaming service.

The first will be Love, Diana Adventures – a series that follows Diana into a new world – the Land of Play – where she is transformed from live action into an animated Princess of Play as she acts to protect her friends and family from Boris the Baron of Boredom. Love, Diana Adventures gained more than 10 millions views globally within five of the launch of the first episode.

The second show will be Kids Diana Show Ultimate Mishmash; a mashup of highlights from the Kids Diana Show YouTube channel starring Diana together with her brother, Roma. Diana and Roma take the audience through all of their family-friendly pretend play adventures; including dress up, role-play, and many other scenarios that spark the imagination of little kids.

Collectively, Diana has nearly 5 billion monthly views on her 14 YouTube channels, which provide audiences with family-friendly content in 9 different languages.

Ahmad Weiss, commercial director of Spacetoon, said: “We are thrilled to announce this collaboration with pocket.watch, to bring top-rated, family and kid-friendly content to the region, along with opening the doors for new merchandise related to the Love, Diana brand.

“Love, Diana is very popular among families around the world and the MENA region is no exception. People love this show for being adventurous and taking edutainment content to the next level. We are always open to this type of opportunity that results in bringing purposeful, values-based content and products to Arab families and presenting it in a unique way.”

Danny Sprongz, managing director, EMEA, Pocket.Watch, added: “Pocket.Watch is thrilled to enter into this licensing opportunity with Spacetoon to expand the Love, Diana Franchise in the Middle East.

“The Spacetoon audience, coupled with Spacetoon’s licensing capabilities will be critical to accelerating the Love, Diana brand and continuing to deliver fun and inspiration to young audiences within the region.”

Other Pocket.Watch titles to be made available on the Spacetoon TV channel and Spacetoon GO online streaming service, include the Emmy-nominated series Ryan’s Mystery Playdate and Ryan’s World Specials.

The shows will be dubbed into Arabic and broadcasted on Spacetoon TV Channel, while being made available on Spacetoon GO online streaming service. This will offer a chance to more than 100 million viewers around MENA to spend hours of joy and amusement with their favorite characters.

Pocket.watch extends its toys licensing partnership with Flair for newest YouTube star Kids Diana Show

Flair Just Play has extended its licensing partnership with pocket.watch, the studio behind the Ryan’s World franchise, to launch a range of role-play items inspired by the YouTube sensation, Kids Diana Show. The new range will launch across the UK and Ireland from spring next year.

According to Tubefilter, the Kids Diana Show channel totals five billion global views a month, making Diana the number three YouTuber in the world.

To support the global launch of the Kids Diana Show merchandise, pocket.watch has produced 40 episodes of Love, Diana. In this series, where live-action meets animation, the episodes are designed to help children learn positive lessons about friendship, family, creativity, and the power of play.

“We are absolutely thrilled to be partnering with pocket.watch once again,” said Charlotte Rodgers, marketing manager for the Just Play brands portfolio, Flair.

“Kids Diana Show is an international smash hit on YouTube, with billions of kids across the globe tuning in to view the channel each month, and this is just the beginning! We can’t wait to bring our fantastic Love, Diana role-play collection to the toy aisle.

“When kids play, their world expands, and our Love, Diana toys are designed with that in mind. Our Love, Diana role-play collection is directly inspired by key products featured in the show, which means that the toys are not only easily recognisable on the shelf, but it also means that girls will be able to go on their very own Love, Diana adventures – just like she does in the show.”

Stone Newman, chief revenue officer of pocket.watch, added: “We are delighted to be continuing our relationship with partners like Flair Just Play to expand the reach of the Love, Diana franchise to entertain and inspire young girls around the world.”

The Flair Just Play role-play collection includes Love, Diana’s Adventure Set – a backpack that looks like the one Diana wears in the show. It comes with a transforming wand hairbrush, an interactive phone, a map to help navigate the Land of Play, and more.

The Surprise Deluxe Trunk, meanwhile, has plenty of surprises, with many compartments for girls to discover. This music box promises the ultimate unboxing experience. Plus, there’s the Light-Up Bubble Wand, which produces bubbles like Diana’s wand does before she travels into the Land of Play. There is also an unlockable collection of Love, Diana Mini Mystery Trunks for fans to discover.

NAVIGATION