“Blippi” is huge.
The YouTube Kids TV series celebrated its biggest month in history in January, with over 2 billion viewing in a month. That’s 1 billion in B.
Viewers of the live-action kindergarten series following hilarious characters using direct addresses to teach children about the abundance of cars, animals, tools, safety and other topics have grown almost five times since Moonbug Entertainment acquired the brand in 2020, and now “Blippi” is in New Era: Permim Episdes.
As children’s television viewers move almost entirely online with the emergence of “Code Never” and the aging of “iPad Kids,” YouTube is the indisputable king. However, streamers like Netflix and Disney+ are beginning to pay attention to shows that exploded on the platform. By licensed episodes of YouTube Sensations such as “Blippi” and “Ms. Rachel,” Netflix has bolstered license shows such as “Office” and “Friends” such as “Office” and “Friends” to acquire an original comedy strategy.
Currently, Netflix is partnering with Moonbug, a British company owned by Candlemedia. This animates the hit “Coco Melon” under the umbrella, but in the new original premium “Blippi” series called “Blippi’s Job Show”, an episode where children and parents have bigger budgets and episodes you can’t Watch YouTube for free, mark a big move for streamers in the kids’ space, and level it up even further for MoonBug’s beloved brand.
The “Blippi” arc highlights the ways children’s television has changed radically over the past decade. This is a show that only started at this point in 2014 when creator and original star star John posted his first video and then grew into Organica on YouTube. It has all the merchandising and spinoffs while continuing to mine views (and advertising revenue) from short form content. Now, the show has expanded to the premium tier, as it has accumulated global fandom through free viewing videos.
“We’re obviously investing in Blippi as a core franchise that’s going on YouTube and other platforms, but what we’re doing with this show is trying to create something very specific and unique for the audience that Netflix knows.” “I think we’re going to meet a lot of the huge demand for kids and parents looking for something magical in live action space.”
Holt emphasized that Blippi is “not an influencer” despite calling YouTube to the house. “Netflix understands and respects it, so we’re not saying, ‘Oh, this is just influencer content or YouTube content.” They think these are really well defined characters,” he said.
Netflix knows that “Blippi” works for its audience. The licensed “Blippi” has shown 221 million views on the platform in the second half of 2024. So Holt says the Netflix and Moonbug partnership is organic as both have a wealth of data to guide programming.
“We see enough trends to say there are a lot of responses, but I think the responsiveness of this ability to generate content like this allows us to bring our dataset into conversation, just like how Netflix sees trends and tracking on the platform.
For example, each episode of “Blippi’s Job Show” is delved deep into one particular job, from firefighters to astronauts to monster truck drivers. Blippi GM Mike Katzman told TheWrap that creating a list of hundreds of possible jobs that Blippi can work on will help them trim the list using data from YouTube Stats and the Netflix platform.
“We really want to do what we know to work with a character set and work on the platform, and ultimately we want to make this show as impact as possible, so we provide the best representation of the show working for the target audience that is the child and its caregivers,” Katzman said.
MoonBug refused to provide certain numbers, but the budget for “Blippi Job Show” is larger than the budget for regular episodes of “Blippi” that exists on YouTube. The show took advantage of this volume. VFX Technology was pioneered with The Mandalorian, and rendered CG backgrounds in real time as sets, making it the first live action Blippi clubhouse.
But a larger budget doesn’t mean bigger busy. In fact, children flocked to YouTube, but the platform is also a hotbed of homemade children and preschool content that may not be as rich as parents would like, or may not be as safe. The Moonbug, which focuses on making “Brippi” educational, safe and secure, is directly related to its popularity and is bolstered with “Brippi’s Job Show.”
“We focus on the socio-emotional learning side of things a little more than usual. [in ‘Blippi’s Job Show’]Katzman said, because jobs have different values. “So we can talk about ‘What does courage mean?’ If you have an episode of a firefighter or if you are creativity or doing your best. These are some topics that you will enhance with episodes through jobs. ”
He also teased more songs than episodes on YouTube.
Clayton Grimm as Brippi and Cache Monia as Meeka in Brippi’s Job Show. (Netflix)
The performance of “Blippi’s Job Show” may open up a way for Netflix to continue expanding child programming by partnering with creators of shows that exploded on YouTube, particularly with creators of shows that compete for views. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said last summer that Netflix and YouTube were “feeding each other.”
“We obviously compete with YouTube in a particular segment of their business. And while we certainly compete with them for time and attention, our service also feeds each other really well,” Sarandos said. More recently, Salandus took a bit of a shot at his competitors, saying that while Netflix was in the “expenditure time business” at the Paley Center event, the YouTube model was built around “murder time.”
MoonBug hopes that “Blippi’s Job Show” will be the next in many collaborations with Netflix, and Holt said there could be a more premium “Blippi” show along the way.
“We want to continue doing bigger and better things with them,” he said. “I think the spirit of collaboration is what I really appreciate working with them. There’s a lot of symbiosis in how you think about your family and how you get to them. When it comes to understanding what their platform needs and expressing it very clearly, I think their kids and family teams are the best in business.”
A post first appeared on TheWrap in which MoonBug and Netflix collaborated to bring YouTube-born sensation Blippi to their premium platform.
