Novel Entertainment has secured a new global deal for its internationally renowned Horrid Henry brand with dedicated kids’ audio platform Yoto. Under the partnership, five initial Horrid Henry audio titles will launch as cards for Yoto’s award-winning Yoto Player in June, including Ice Cream Dream, The Name Game, The Best Boys’ Club Sleepover, Horrid Henry’s Petsitting Service and Horrid Henry and the Walking Stick Gang.
The screen-free Yoto Player is designed specifically for children and is controlled using physical cards, which are inserted into the speaker to activate the audio content. Yoto’s audio cards can also be played through its app on compatible smartphones. .
Novel Entertainment has also secured a further agreement for Horrid Henry audio content with audiobook distributor Findaway. Following the deal, eight collections consisting of five Horrid Henry stories each are now available worldwide across Findaway’s extensive network of platforms, which includes Apple, Google Play, Scribd and NOOK, in addition to existing partners including Audible and Amazon.
Novel Entertainment co-founder Mike Watts, says: “Audio content is providing great comfort for families all around the world, whether as a part of a soothing bedtime routine, for extra learning during school closures or simply for the family to come together to enjoy. As we continue bringing Horrid Henry fans content across a multitude of formats and platforms, we know that with Yoto’s focus on empowering children to safely choose their favourite stories to listen to, they are ideally placed to make our Horrid Henry audio content offering even more accessible for both new and existing fans.”
Yoto, content director Jessica Tarrant, added: “We’re excited to be bringing the world of Horrid Henry to Yoto with these hilarious audio titles, which we know will delight fans of the TV series and new listeners alike. Novel Entertainment has carefully crafted a brilliant audio series that brings Henry’s misadventures vividly to life, and we hope this partnership will open up these fantastic stories to an eager and engaged new audience.”
Novel Entertainment first launched Horrid Henry audio content in Spring 2020 and continues to expand the offering for fans. Most recently, Novel Entertainment launched a ‘Horrid Henry’s Winter Wonderland’ audiobook compilation featuring Horrid Henry’s Christmas, Early Christmas Present and Winter Wish titles, and the ‘Super Scary One’, which includes Horrid Halloween, Horrid Henry and the Weird Werewolf and Horrid Henry’s Haunted House. These latest offerings join the initial six ‘Totally Horrid Collections’ which debuted last year.
Aimed at children aged 5 and over, Novel Entertainment’s Horrid Henry audio content takes the form of dramatisations from its hit Horrid Henry TV series, featuring the show’s voice talent with additional narrative from Henry (voiced by Elizabeth Waterworth-Santo) and songs. A Horrid Henry podcast also launched in 2020 which is titled Horrid Henry Unlocked and presented by radio host Sean Thorne, voice actor Lizzie Waterworth, and Henry himself. It offers fans insights into the inner workings of the world of Horrid Henry.
Since the start of the pandemic, Novel Entertainment has created over 100 pieces of fresh content for Horrid Henry, produced under the banner of Horrid Henry Unlocked which is designed to offer a familiar environment for fans to discover how the Horrid Henry family is responding to the current crisis. As well as the Horrid Henry podcast and audio stories, new material includes Horrid Homework in the form of activities which are available via the recently redesigned Horrid Henry website (https://www.horridhenry.me/); projects, challenges, puzzles, and bespoke videos including newly created songs, short videos and behind the scenes content and interviews.
Novel Entertainment has also recently brought fans new long-form animated content including Horrid Henry’s Gross Day Out, a new 65’ action-adventure film which launched globally on Netflix in September 2020, alongside Horrid Henry’s Wild Weekend which debuted on Netflix in the UK last June. Nickelodeon has also recently acquired the Wild Weekend special for the UK which debuted in December 2020, and for Sub-Saharan Africa, Viacom/Nickelodeon has acquired the rights to Seasons 1-4 of Horrid Henry.
All five seasons of Horrid Henry are currently airing on Netflix in the UK, and also on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons UK and Ireland. A total of 250 Horrid Henry episodes are now available with recent sales including MBC (Middle East), Alati International (Russia), Atlantic Digital Networks (Canada), TG4 (Ireland), Amazon Prime Video (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), P&P (Bosnia), Produkcija (Slovenia), Kids Network (Latvia and Estonia) and Emirates (UAE and Middle East). Renewals include Turner Broadcasting System (Asia Pacific), Mediacorp (Singapore), POP TV (Slovenia), E-Vision (Middle East), Asiana (Korea), Netflix (US, Canada, France, India, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland and Belgium), Discovery+ (India) and OKKO (Russia, Ukraine and Belarus).