Moonbug Entertainment (often abbreviated to Moonbug ) is a British children's media company and multi-channel network headquartered in London, with an overseas office in Los Angeles, United States which creates, produces, and distributes children's video and audio content. It is currently owned by Candle Media, an American media company led by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs. Moonbug distributes children's entertainment intellectual property, including the YouTube channels Cocomelon and Little Baby Bum and YouTube series such as Mia's Magic Playground, Blippi, and My Magic Pet Morphle.
Since being founded in 2018, the company has distributed many series and franchises across animation, live-action and puppet shows. Moonbug shows can also be found on many streaming services. Moonbug programming is distributed on more than 100 platforms and is available in 26 languages around the world.
History
Moonbug Entertainment was co-founded in 2018 by René Rechtman, the former president of international at Maker Studios (now Rogue Rocket and formerly known as Disney Digital Network), and John Robson, the former managing director of WildBrain (now WildBrain Spark). The company was incorporated on 9 February 2018, under the name Project ABC Holdings Limited.
In December 2020, Moonbug appointed former vice president of children's programming for Disney Channels in Europe and Africa/UK & Ireland, David Levine, to head the studio. On 19 October 2021, a company backed by The Blackstone Group is said to be interested in buying Moonbug. Later, on 5 November 2021, Moonbug acquired by an unnamed company led by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs which also backed by Blackstone. Later, in January 2022, it is revealed that the current holding company of Moonbug was named Candle Media.
On 1 March 2023, Moonbug worked with brand agency DixonBaxi to rebrand their logo.
Acquisitions
In September 2018, YouTube channel Little Baby Bum was acquired by Moonbug for an estimated US$9 million. My Magic Pet Morphle (formerly by Morphle TV) was acquired on 11 February 2019, while Supa Strikas on 6 August 2019. On 31 July 2020, Cocomelon and Blippi were purchased together for US$120 million.
In February 2020, South Korean animated series Arpo: The Robot for All Kids created by Toonzip, which first aired on 2012 by MBC TV, was bought by Moonbug. As of 2021 Canary Islands-based studio 3Doubles Producciones produces the show for Moonbug on YouTube. The ownership of Arpo, however, is not really clear since another South Korean animation studio Anyzac (which owns Zombiedumb), founded by former Toonzip executives in 2013, also claimed that series.
On 10 February 2022, Moonbug acquired the YouTube network Little Angel. On 24 May 2022, Moonbug acquired Singapore-based media company One Animation, producer of Oddbods.
Partnerships with Moonbug
On 13 October 2019, Moonbug signed a content deal with Nordic Entertainment Group to create an animated series entitled Mia's Magic Playground. On 24 August 2020, Moonbug announced a partnership with HBO Max to release Moonbug's original series Mia's Magic Playground, which consists of 24 episodes. On the same day, Moonbug also announced another partnership with MGA Entertainment to create an animated series based on the Cozy Coupe toy line, titled Let's Go Cozy Coupe.
In April 2020, Moonbug partnered with Chinese video platform Xigua Video to bring Little Baby Bum to a Chinese audience. Later that year, in September, the company signed another distribution deal with Tencent Video, a streaming platform owned by the Chinese internet company Tencent, to host four of Moonbug's programs: Go Buster, Playtime with Twinkle, KiiYii, and The Sharksons.
On 18 August 2020, it was confirmed that Moonbug had signed a deal with Cloudco Entertainment to operate the Care Bears YouTube channel and to co-produce a web series based on the franchise, titled Care Bears: Unlock the Music. This deal expired in 2022, and Cloudco reverted to operating the channel with their previous management partner Little Dot Studios later on in the year.
On 21 August 2020, Moonbug launched a Little Baby Bum FAST channel on Pluto TV.
On 23 September 2020, Moonbug announced an agreement with Virgin Media to distribute its shows. On 7 January 2021, Moonbug Entertainment and licensing company The Point. 1888 secured six companies for Blippi-branded merchandise. On 3 February 2021, Moonbug Entertainment partnered with children's TV channel Spacetoon to distribute its shows via Spacetoon Go.