Rovio Entertainment,the Finish game developer and entertainment company behind the Angry Birds mobile games has been positioning itself as an entertainment company on the level of Disney—complete with an animation studio, theme park, book business and plush toys. And on March 16 and 17 the company will launch the Angry Birds Toon video series
Michele Tobin, Rovio’s head of brand partnerships and advertising for the Americas, said “We view ourselves as the media company for the connected device era. Considering that Angry Birds apps have been downloaded 1.7 billion times and reach 263 million monthly active users, Rovio has the stats to back up such a claim.”
In keeping with that Disney 3.0 position, Rovio will be distributing Angry Birds Toons through a new channel being added to the Angry Birds smartphone and tablet apps, as well as multiple video and TV distribution outlets. In the U.S, the new show—which goes into Angry Birds’ characters backstories on the fictional Piggy Island—will be available via Comcast’s Xfinity on-demand service and Samsung Smart TVs, and will eventually be available through Roku and other connected devices.
However, Rovio’s YouTube Channel, which has received over a billion video views, will not be an initial distribution vehicle, but Tobin made it clear that the video platform could be in the cards for the future.
Rovio seeks to adopt a more traditional scheduling system. A single 2 minute 45 second episode will air each weekend, first hitting TV on Saturday and then rolling out to the mobile and tablet Angry Birds apps on Sunday
The series will be distributed traditionally through TV network partners outside the U.S. (such as Cartoon Network in India)
According to Tobin, The company has a very large, highly engaged audience, and they will continue to give the fans what they want and also bring them new and exciting content, citing a 97 percent brand awareness stat for the brand in China.
Tobin says,”Given the series’ potential reach (the apps have been downloaded by 263 million users) Activision, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and BlackBerry are the series’ four launch brands,and other advertisers will be will be incorporated before all 52 episodes air.”