Twofour54 signs Macmillan for Driver Dan's Story Train
Twofour54, the Abu Dhabi government initiative to establish a sustainable Arabic media and entertainment content creation industry, has announced the signing of a global five year publishing deal with Macmillan Children’s Books for the new pre-school brand, Driver Dan’s Story Train.
Driver Dan’s Story Train is a twofour54 and 3Line Media strategic
partnership investment, the first series of which has been airing on
BBC children’s channel, CBeebies, since January 2010. Featuring a cast
of animated animal characters it introduces pre-schoolers to the magic
of books and story telling, while focusing on their social development.
Each episode includes a new, specially commissioned picture book.
Macmillan Children’s Books, a division of Pan Macmillan, will
develop a publishing programme on a global scale with a particular
emphasis on the Middle East, UK and USA. To develop and extend the
Driver Dan brand Macmillan will be looking to publish character-based
board books and paperback story books before adding new formats
including wipe clean, board, cloth and bath books as well as
interactive ebooks.
Emma Hopkin, managing director of Macmillan Children’s Books adds:
“Driver Dan takes a unique approach in promoting literacy through TV to
pre-school children. Created by Rebecca Elgar, who has a proven record
in preschool programming, it is exactly the quality investment in the
licensed arena that we have been looking to acquire. We are delighted
to be developing the brand into its next stage of print and digital
formats."
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