Six-year deal secured with Vivendi for world publishing rights including audio and e-book.
HarperCollins Children’s Books has secured a major publishing deal for the Paddington Bear brand.
The company has inked a six-year deal with Vivendi for world publishing rights including audio and e-book.
The deal marks the beginning of a new chapter in Paddington’s history forming a powerhouse partnership of media and content creation that will introduce Paddington to a new generation of readers on the global stage.
The partnership will launch with a movie tie-in programme, co-published by HarperCollins US and UK, to coincide with the Paddington 2 movie this autumn.
Ann-Janine Murtagh, executive publisher at HarperCollins Children’s Books UK, said: “We are proud to be both the original publisher of Paddington Bear and now exclusive global publishing partner of the Vivendi Group.
“We share their ambition to ensure that Paddington Bear builds an ever bigger fan base and continues to endear children worldwide. We have been privileged to publish Michael Bond on the HarperCollins list for nearly 60 years.
“We admire the integrity and creativity with which Studiocanal have brought Paddington to life in the first Paddington movie and look forward with huge excitement to movie two. Paddington publishing marks a key strand of HarperCollins’ future growth strategy and we look forward to working with our colleagues at Vivendi in the years ahead.”
Vivendi took full ownership of the Paddington brand worldwide following the successful international release of the Paddington movie by Studiocanal (a Vivendi subsidiary) in 2014.
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