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Â鶹Éç Magazines has signed an exclusive deal with Spellbound Entertainment to develop and produce Â鶹Éç Magazines’ first pre-school magazine app for the multi award winning children’s brand, The Koala Brothers.

The app will combine the global popularity of The Koala Brothers' characters with the editorial experience of Â鶹Éç Pre-school Magazines, to bring these characters to life in a new and exciting medium. It is being developed by the digital team behind Â鶹Éç Magazines' award-winning Focus magazine app and the highly-acclaimed Good Food magazine app.

Â鶹Éç Magazines' pre-school team produces a range of leading children's titles, including CBeebies Weekly and the recently launched Something Special Magazine. The team's understanding of this young audience and how they play, learn and use the technology enables them to bring content to life, delivering interactive, fun and educational magazines, websites – and now apps.

Pauline Cooke, Publisher of Pre-school titles at Â鶹Éç Magazines, says: "We have a long-standing relationship with Spellbound and a great understanding of The Koala Brothers brand, so we are very excited about working together to create something that's truly unique in this market: a multi-layered super app for pre-schoolers."

Peter Curtis, Joint Managing Director of Spellbound Entertainment, says: "We are delighted to be working with Â鶹Éç Magazines, the market leaders in pre-school magazines, on this exciting new venture. The app market is growing fast and we believe a digital magazine app for The Koala Brothers will be very popular with our fan base across the globe."

The Koala Brothers was originally commissioned by CÂ鶹Éç in the UK and has been acquired by over 50 broadcasters covering over 155 territories worldwide, and has been translated into 31 languages. The show is licensed exclusively to the Â鶹Éç in the UK and is one of the top rating pre-school shows airing on CBeebies.

The Koala Brothers pre-school magazine app will launch to coincide with the programme's relaunch on Disney Junior in the US in 2012.

The app will launch initially on iTunes for the iPad, iTouch and Mac users and expand to Android devices via Google later next year.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The Koala Brothers has won many prestigious awards including Best Pre-school Series and the Writers Award from the British Animation Awards and has received 4 BAFTA nominations.

Spellbound Entertainment Limited was formed in 2002 by Peter Curtis, previous Head of Creative Development at HIT Entertainment, and Nick Barrington, a former executive at Endemol UK.

Spellbound Entertainment controls all rights to The Koala Brothers brand internationally and manages all TV distribution, home entertainment, publishing and licensing.

About Â鶹Éç Magazines
Â鶹Éç Magazines is the magazine publishing division of Â鶹Éç Worldwide, the main commercial arm and wholly owned subsidiary of the Â鶹Éç. It publishes over 40 Â鶹Éç consumer titles, including Top Gear, Good Food, Gardeners’ World and Radio Times and many children’s titles including CBeebies Weekly, Doctor Who Adventures and Match of the Day.

Sarah Williams-Robbins