Candle Media CEO Kevin Mayer addressed the information that globally common animated collection Cocomelon will probably be leaving Netflix for Disney+ on the APOS media and leisure convention in Bali, Indonesia.
In Could, The Hollywood Reporter realized that Disney+ had picked up Cocomelon after Netflix declined to resume its license. Beginning in 2027, Disney+ could have each season of the hit preschool present that’s the crown jewel of Candle’s Moonbug Leisure unit. On the time, Netflix sources advised THR that the streamer selected to not renew its Cocomelon license as a result of a decline in viewership. The present has been with Netflix since 2020, and regardless of airing 4 new seasons in 2024, the preschool collection’ viewership declined by practically 60 % from 2023 H1 to 2024 H2, in keeping with the streamer’s experiences.
On Wednesday, Mayer took half in a fireplace chat at APOS with Vivek Couto, government director of Media Companions Asia, and was straight requested about Cocomelon transferring to Disney, a deal that regardless of Netflix’s claims about viewership declines remains to be one thing of a coup for Mayer’s former employer given the energy and ubiquity of the kids-focused model.
“Properly, I wouldn’t learn an excessive amount of into this one shift from Netflix to Disney+ as a broader shift within the ecosystem essentially,” Mayer mentioned when requested if the deal had implications for the youngsters content material ecosystem. “All of the IP from the Moonbug originates on YouTube, and I feel it’s a really totally different mannequin for media corporations.”
Mayer defined that YouTube is the “most fertile space to get a professionally produced IP” for corporations like Moonbug. “We purchased Cocomelon 5 years in the past. It was developed by a South Korean couple in south Los Angeles and it was already a fairly large property, with about 60 million subscribers, and thousands and thousands of views a month. Now we’ve grown into 200 million subscribers. And in January of this 12 months we had 10 billion views throughout Cocomelon and the remainder of our libraries at Moonbug.”
He added that Cocomelon started strictly as a YouTube property however Candle regarded to make it a multiplatform model. “We take it from YouTube, we put it on Netflix, after which the unique Netflix deployment was really simply the YouTube seasons that we had put up on YouTube. We packaged these into one-hour episodes. Since 2021, it was on Netflix, and it’s been the primary present on Netflix globally in mixture since then.”
Mayer mentioned that Cocomelon had a “nice run” on Netflix however Moonbug has checked out many different avenues to capitalize on the recognition of the model, together with producing video games, licensing and music for streamers like Spotify. “Final 12 months, throughout Moonbug, we had extra music streams throughout all platforms than Taylor Swift.”
“Netflix was an incredible residence for [Cocomelon] for a very long time, and there are totally different utilization events. Some dad and mom are comfy with YouTube. Some dad and mom are extra comfy with the extra curated surroundings that Netflix represents, and naturally Disney is a pure residence for youths and household product, Mayer mentioned. “I come from Disney, I spent 25 years there, it’s a pure place for this emigrate to, and I feel we need to take our properties and strategically deploy them throughout all of the totally different streaming platforms — Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ — there are numerous streaming platforms, many properties for our properties, and we attempt to reap the benefits of that.”
In the direction of the tip of the fireplace chat, Mayer remembered to interrupt some information, revealing that the Cocomelon model can be collaborating with Sanrio’s world popular culture phenomenon Hi there Kitty. Mayer didn’t supply any specifics or particulars concerning the collaboration or what platforms it could seem on, however he did say the partnership would launch in 2026 and that it could be a “joyous second for youths and youths world wide.”