KidsCo | KidsCo celebrates 20 years of Sonic The Hedgehog

London, UK – 23 June 2011 – KidsCo, the international children’s channel, is today celebrating Sonic The Hedgehog’s 20th Birthday, marking the occasion with an on-air birthday special across Asia and Africa as well as special promos on its website.

Sonic The Hedgehog is a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog, who has the ability to run at supersonic speeds and curl into a ball, primarily to attack his enemy Robotnik. Sonic is a video game character and the main protagonist of the Sonic video game series released by Sega, as well as in numerous spin-off comics, cartoons and a feature film. The first game was released on June 23, 1991, in order to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo’s flagship character Mario. Since then, Sonic has become one of the world’s best-known video game characters, with his series having sold more than 80 million copies.
 
KidsCo, began broadcasting the show Sonic Underground in September 2007 and it is now shown in 14 languages across 65 countries. Sonic is a classic show in the KidsCo library and is hugely popular the world over. Sonic Underground is part of KidsCo’s Video Game Heroes breakfast block which began roll out in April this year and forms part of the channel’s focus on delivering quality ‘edutainment’ to children aged 6-10, pre-schoolers and families globally.
 
Paul Robinson, CEO at KidsCo says: “At KidsCo we are really proud of our content, we offer a great range of classic, first-run exclusive and original shows across 95 territories worldwide. We know what kids love and we know what parents look for when deciding what their children should watch, which is why we are dedicated to offering families a choice of shows that they can trust and enjoy. Sonic is an iconic show that we are really proud to offer and very much look forward to continuing to do so while constantly adding to our library of great shows.”

About KidsCo
KidsCo, the global children’s television network for pre-schoolers, children aged 6-10 and families, launched in September 2007. It is a joint venture channel owned by leading media companies NBC Universal, Corus Entertainment Inc. (Nelvana) and Cookie Jar Entertainment.

KidsCo’s global distribution plan, launching linear, VOD, SVOD and IPTV channels has already seen the channel rolling out to 95 territories throughout the world in 18 languages. KidsCo is available in Australia, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Slovenia, Ukraine, Moldova, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, Cyprus, the Middle East, Hong Kong, Palau, Indonesia, Taiwan, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa, the Maldives and countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

KidsCo provides a safe environment for children, offering a library of gently educational and age appropriate programming. KidsCo’s impressive catalogue includes animated and live-action television series and feature-length movies which are selected from leading media companies, including our shareholders – Cookie Jar Entertainment and Corus’ Nelvana – as well as other, pre-eminent, independent programming suppliers including the BBC, Sesame Workshop, Fremantle, Fireworks, Iconix, TV Loonland, Daro Film and Decode.

KidsCo programming includes globally recognised brands such as The Wiggles, Inspector Gadget, Sabrina, Wallace & Gromit, S Club 7, Strawberry Shortcake, New Adventures of Madeline, Babar, Dennis the Menace, Franklin and Rolie Polie Olie as well as KidsCo original programming including arts show Jass Time! and environmental programme, Boo & Me.

For more information please contact:
Champion Communications
kidsco@championcomms.com 
+44 (0)207 268 3076