BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., June 25, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Genius Brands International, Inc. “Genius Brands” (NASDAQ: GNUS), the global brand management company that creates and licenses multimedia entertainment content for children, today announced a unique content partnership between its Genius Brands Network, which includes the Kid Genius Cartoon Channel and Baby Genius TV reaching 80 million U.S. households, and Tankee, Inc., the first safe, digital destination for kids ages 6-12 to enjoy gaming videos.
Beginning July 2019, Genius Brands Network will launch a roster of Tankee Originals, including Minecraft Journey to the End, Octodad Dadliest Catch, PixARK Adventure, and Fairy Horse Quest, delivering a total of 75 episodes on the Kid Genius Cartoon Channel, which targets kids ages 6-11. Additionally, Tankee will launch content from Genius Brands’ Kid Genius Cartoon Channel across its free entertainment app, including the award-winning Warren Buffett’s Secret Millionaires Club and Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab.
"We pride ourselves on being a forward-thinking company, and this new partnership with Tankee offers us the opportunity to engage our audience across all mediums further, broadening our coverage into the gaming space with our content launch on Tankee's award-winning platform," stated Genius Brands’ Chairman & CEO Andy Heyward. “The children’s media landscape has evolved so rapidly and dramatically over the past five years. With content platforms becoming increasingly diffused, we identified a vacuum in the market our Kid Genius Channel viewers are clamoring for, and we are thrilled to bring Tankee’s dynamic productions based on wildly popular video games to our streaming service.”
“We are honored to be partnering with Genius Brands and bringing Tankee Originals to 80 million households,” said Gerald Youngblood, co-founder and CEO of Tankee. “We created Tankee, the free entertainment app for kids 6-12, to give kids the videos they love from their favorite games like Minecraft while helping parents protect their kids from inappropriate content. We share in Genius Brands’ mission to give kids entertaining and age-appropriate shows in a safe environment and couldn’t be more thrilled to see Tankee’s original programming on the award-winning platform.”
About Genius Brands Network
Genius Brands launched the Genius Brands Network as a destination devoted to delivering “Content with a Purpose,” providing kids and parents with a choice in premium entertaining, enriching and engaging programming. The network is comprised of Kid Genius Cartoon Channel and Baby Genius TV and is distributed across multiple over-the-top (OTT) platforms as both ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) and subscriber video-on-demand (SVOD) services that includes Amazon Prime, Comcast’s Xfinity on Demand, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Cox, Tubi, and Xumo. The Genius Brands Network currently reaches 80 million U.S. households with continued expansion planned both in the U.S. and internationally and is the only independent kid’s portal with channel offerings that deliver age-appropriate, engaging content within a safe viewing environment.
About Tankee Inc.
Tankee Inc. is an Austin-based media company dedicated to the future of kids’ digital entertainment. Tankee, the company’s first offering, is a free entertainment app for kids 6-12 that helps parents protect their kids from inappropriate online content while giving kids access to the gaming videos they love. The safe, COPPA-compliant destination features 500+ hours of curated and original gaming videos spanning the most popular game franchises for kids and features top gaming influencers. Connecting gaming content owners to advertisers in the advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) space, Tankee features popular third-party brands in a robust library of videos including more than 150 Tankee Originals, exclusive content co-produced with top influencers. Download the award-winning Tankee for iOS on the App Store or Android on Google Play. For more information, visit www.tankee.com.
About Genius Brands International
Headquartered in Beverly Hills, Genius Brands International, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNUS) is a leading global kids media company developing, producing, marketing and licensing branded children’s entertainment properties and consumer products for media and retail distribution. The Company’s “content with a purpose” brand portfolio, which is led by award-winning creators and producers, includes preschool properties Rainbow Rangers for Nick Jr. and Llama Llama for Netflix; award-winning toddler brand, Baby Genius; adventure comedy STEM series, Thomas Edison's Secret Lab; and financial literacy and entrepreneurship series, Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaires Club. The Company’s content catalog also includes the animated series, Stan Lee's Cosmic Crusaders, created with Stan Lee's Pow! Entertainment. Seeing the need to provide kids and parents with a safe viewing environment that offers premium enriching and engaging programming, Genius Brands launched the Genius Brands Network – comprised of Kid Genius Cartoon Channel and Baby Genius TV, as well as an exclusive Kid Genius Cartoons Plus subscription channel on Amazon Prime. The Network channels are available in approximately 80 million U.S. households via a variety of distribution platforms, such as OTT, set-top box, internet, and mobile. Through licensing agreements with category leading partners, characters from the Company’s properties also appear on a wide range of consumer products for retail. For additional information, please visit www.gnusbrands.com.
Forward-Looking Statements:
Certain statements in this notice constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), not limited to Risk Factors relating to its patent business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Media Contacts:
Michelle Orsi
Three.Sixty Marketing & Communications (for Genius Brands International)
310-418-6430
michelle@360-comm.com
Brooke Bauguess
Violet Kai Inc. (for Tankee, Inc.)
310-863-0278
brooke@violetkaipr.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Crescendo Communications, LLC (for Genius Brands International)
212-671-1020
GNUS@crescendo-ir.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6002881f-1e6c-42be-bf79-d8b927fc1f07