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Celebrity dads team up with Thomas to celebrate storytelling

Two of the nation’s favourite celebrity dads, singer and musician Harry Judd (McFly) and reality TV star Greg Shepherd (The Family Diaries), have teamed up with their children for a new Thomas & Friends campaign,

Reading with Little Friends celebrates the storytelling magic of the children’s brand and showcasing the new toys and characters from the books and TV show.

In two videos recorded at their family homes and now live on the Thomas & Friends YouTube channel, Harry’s children, Lola, five, and Kit, four, as well as Greg’s two kids, Nelly, aged eight, and four-year-old Arthur snuggle onto the sofa with their dads for some quality family reading time together. Lola reads aloud from the story book Thomas and the Rocket to Kit and her dad Harry, while Nelly’s book of choice is Thomas and Percy’s Spooky Adventure, which she reads to Arthur and dad, Greg.

The videos are designed to highlight the exciting and captivating tales featuring important life lessons for children that have remained at the heart of Thomas & Friends for over 75 years since the first Railway Series book, written by Reverend W. Awdry, was published in 1945. Thomas & Friends recently underwent a major revamp to appeal to contemporary audiences’ sensibilities while maintaining Thomas’ core message about the value of friendship.

Strawberry Shortcake: Berry

in the Big City premieres in UK

Strawberry Shortcake takes on her newest adventure yet as she heads to Big Apple City to get her big baking break, in Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City, which has premiered in the UK exclusively on Tiny Pop.

Strawberry Shortcake heads to Big Apple City, where all of the best names in baking go to make it big. Joining Strawberry Shortcake is her cute cat Custard, and her ‘Berry Besties’. Together, the girls run their fabulous food trucks and chase their sweet dreams and ‘bake the world a better place’.

Strawberry Shortcake wants to be the greatest baker the world has ever seen. Why? Because she wants to make a difference and believes with all her strawberryscented heart that a perfectly-baked treat can brighten someberry’s day! She is determined to show the world that she has what it takes to ‘bake’ it in the big leagues!

The whole series is airing on Tiny Pop, the free-to-air TV channel for fourto-six-year-olds.

Bakugan is

back on POP

The Awesome Brawlers are back in Bakugan: Evolutions, from Spin Master Entertainment, airing on POP from this month!

Drago, Trox, Pegatrix, Hydorous, Howlkor and Pharol return stronger, faster, and better than ever in this new season. Strange occurrences begin to happen, with elemental energy from Vestroia seeping into Earth and creating a mysterious phenomena - causing Bakugan to rage out or evolve with excess energy. Once again, the fate of two worlds rests in the hands of the Awesome Brawlers and their Bakugan partners!

Catch the whole of the series on POP, the free-to-air TV channel for six-to-10-year-olds.

Apps launch for hit kids’ TV series

Animation company Omens Studios has partnered with global video content distribution platform VlogBox to further extend the reach of Omens’ hit series with two new AVOD and SVOD apps.

The initial rollout via VlogBox sees free, ad-supported and SVOD apps for the series Leo the Wildlife Ranger and Counting with Paula launch globally with Roku, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV. The apps will include episodes and curated content as well as bonus content from each series such as ‘best of’ Leo and an additional 20 x 2.5’ of nursery rhymes for the Counting with Paula app.

Award-winning Leo the Wildlife Ranger has sold in more than 50 countries. Counting with Paula is available in more than 50 territories.